Why is doping wrong anyway?
EXCERPT: Revelations of doping typically provoke moral outrage. The received view is that doping is morally wrong because it’s cheating, and those caught doing it should be punished. The rhetoric of the media, the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and sporting officials – and, in the Rio Games, some athletes themselves – all embody this idea. But why is doping morally wrong? Would it be morally wrong if it wasn’t against the rules?
Athletes who dope are seeking to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. But athletes seek to gain competitive advantages in numerous ways and many of these are not banned. If it’s wrong to enhance your performance by doping, why is it not also wrong to enhance your performance by taking dietary supplements, for instance, or carb-loading, or by training at altitude? [...] To remain competitive, athletes have to submit themselves to harsh training regimes and controlled diets that potentially cause long-term harm. If such measures produce better results, then all athletes have to adopt these measures. Yet no one suggests there’s anything wrong with this kind of coercion in sport.
[...] The moral outrage points to a simpler reason for the wrongness of doping. Doping is cheating because it’s against the rules. But why is it against the rules? Because it’s cheating, of course! This argument moves in an embarrassingly small circle....
MORE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/blog/201...ng-anyway/
EXCERPT: Revelations of doping typically provoke moral outrage. The received view is that doping is morally wrong because it’s cheating, and those caught doing it should be punished. The rhetoric of the media, the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and sporting officials – and, in the Rio Games, some athletes themselves – all embody this idea. But why is doping morally wrong? Would it be morally wrong if it wasn’t against the rules?
Athletes who dope are seeking to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. But athletes seek to gain competitive advantages in numerous ways and many of these are not banned. If it’s wrong to enhance your performance by doping, why is it not also wrong to enhance your performance by taking dietary supplements, for instance, or carb-loading, or by training at altitude? [...] To remain competitive, athletes have to submit themselves to harsh training regimes and controlled diets that potentially cause long-term harm. If such measures produce better results, then all athletes have to adopt these measures. Yet no one suggests there’s anything wrong with this kind of coercion in sport.
[...] The moral outrage points to a simpler reason for the wrongness of doping. Doping is cheating because it’s against the rules. But why is it against the rules? Because it’s cheating, of course! This argument moves in an embarrassingly small circle....
MORE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/blog/201...ng-anyway/