Blood Doping Should Be Illegal in Sports Essay Example

The global sport industry is extremely popular, especially in America.  Most Americans in the United States are huge fans of watching sports as well as playing sports. In the United states, we have a wide range of sports ranging from swimming, boxing, basketball, football, soccer, baseball, etc. When you think of sports you would think of athletes competing with natural talent, unfortunately that’s not the case. In the sport industry many athletes use performance enhancing drugs. Professional athletes began misusing performance enhancing drugs in the 1950’s and in 2004 the Congress enacted the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004. Which has then banned over-the-counter steroids, and the act of making, selling, and using in today’s sports world (NIDA, 2021). Anabolic steroids are used by individuals who have a serious medical condition but professional athletes began abusing these drugs to bulk up their muscles.  Wrongly using anabolic steroids can lead to coronary artery disease, strokes, kidney failure, and heart disease. They can also suppress an individuals immune system causing them to be more subject to infection and cancer (Saladin, 2020, pg. 70). Due to anabolic steroids being illegal in the United States, professional athletes are now turning to blood doping.

What is blood doping? Blood doping improves an athletes performance by artificially enhancing the blood’s ability to bring more oxygen to the muscles (McMillen, 2021). When blood doping is taken place it increases the amount of hemoglobin, which is a protein in red blood cells in an individuals bloodstream. Depending on your red blood cell count, your hemoglobin can either be low or high. For example, I know that my hemoglobin is low which causes me to be anemic. When your hemoglobin is low you lack red blood cells and your body tends to feel weak, and you will have a lack of energy. Athletes are turning to blood doping to increase their hemoglobin, which is causing them to power up their muscles with more oxygen being able to perform better than usual. This can improve their performance in long-distant events such as running, swimming, cycling, etc. Blood doping is no better than anabolic steroids. 

Athletes may think that they are doing themselves a favor by blood doping, but in reality they are just harming their own body. There are many risks when it comes to blood doping. Blood doping causes the blood to thicken which can lead to a heart attack, stroke, or blood clots. Blood doping transfusions can lead to infectious diseases such as  HIV, hepatitis C & B,  and can cause lung injury or bacterial infections. Lastly, it is said that intravenous infusion carries risks such as venous thrombosis, phlebitis and septicemia if not completely sterile (BJSM, 1989). There are several mixed feelings when it comes to performance enhancing drugs but I believe that blood doping should be illegal. Performance enhancing drugs have become an enormous problem in professional sports today, plus they are extremely dangerous. If you are using any type of performance enhancing drugs to perform better you should be held accountable for it. Most individuals would say that it is cheating due to that fact that it’s not natural, and it’s unfair to the athletes who do perform natural. Competing naturally is the healthiest route to go.