Human Enhancement and Sports

The latest controversy over Floyd Landis' alleged use of performance enhancing substances strikes a chord with me after listening to discussions concerning Transhumanism at the WFS conference. In some ways I don't care if professional athletes use these substances. Athletes of every age have done everything they could to gain an edge. At one time this may have just consisted of new training routines or eating certain foods. In the age of biotechnology the edge is gained with new chemical substances or possibly even genetic engineering. Arnold Schwarzenegger admits to using steroids. How many people hold it against him? It seems as though it is OK for bodybuilders. We all know it is impossible to get bodies like that without steroids. Why then is it not OK for baseball players (i.e. Barry Bonds) or cyclists? Is the use of these substances just the next step in seeing what the human body can do? The whole thing reminds me of a skit that I saw on Saturday Night Live Years ago. It involved a weightlifter at the "All Drug Olympics". In the skit the weightlifter approaches the bar and attempts to pull the bar off the floor then the announcer for the event exclaims, "Oh my god he pulled his arms off". The scene then shows blood shooting out the weightlifters torn-off arms like water coming out of a garden hose. I'll admit the drugs are dangerous, but in ways more subtle than that.

Like many things, that which is all right for adults to do is not OK for children. My concern is not about the effects of the drugs on adults, it's their choice to use them, or for its effect on any particular sport. My concern is for children who believe that they will need to use these substances to be able to play on their Jr. High football team. My conscious tells me that this would lead to no good. But, this was exactly the kind of thing that Joel Garreau spoke about in his keynote address at the WFS conference. He conveyed a story of your child coming home crying to be enhanced because he/she couldn't keep up with the other kids who were. As a father of a young child, this is an issue that greatly concerns me. We have to realize that when we make decisions that there could be secondary, unintended results.