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Are the Current World Anti-Doping Agency Guidelines Morally Justifiable? an Overview of Ethical Considerations and Possible Alternatives

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Are the Current World Anti-Doping Agency Guidelines Morally Justifiable? an Overview of Ethical Considerations and Possible Alternatives Are the current World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines morally justifiable? An overview of ethical considerations and possible alternatives Roxanne Caron Department of Philosophy, Biomedical Ethics Unit McGill University, Montreal December 2016 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. © Roxanne Caron 2016 Table of contents Abstract............................................................................................................................................ 4 Résumé............................................................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................................... 6 List of abbreviations.........................................................................................................................7 Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 8 A not so obvious scourge .................................................................................................................8 Organization of the thesis...............................................................................................................11 Limits .............................................................................................................................................14 Chapter I – World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the anti-doping movement.............. 16 History of the anti-doping movement............................................................................................ 16 1938: IOC’s Resolution regarding the amateur status.................................................... .16 1962: Knud Enemark Jensen............................................................................................ 19 1974: State Plan Theme 14.25.......................................................................................... 20 1988: Ben Johnson............................................................................................................21 1998: Festina Cycling Team............................................................................................. 23 Current WADA organization......................................................................................................... 24 Creation of the Agency..................................................................................................... 24 WADA’s purpose and activities........................................................................................ 25 The World Anti-Doping Code (WADC)............................................................................ 26 Future of WADA and the WADC..................................................................................................34 Doubling down on tests and investigations........................................................................ 34 Transparency in practice and results................................................................................. 35 Chapter II - Should doping be considered unethical in elite sports?...................................... 37 Is doping unfair? ........................................................................................................................... 39 Pro: Unfairness to the competitors.................................................................................... 39 Contra: Rights of the athletes.............................................................................................41 Is doping harmful?......................................................................................................................... 42 Pro: Preventing harm.........................................................................................................43 Contra: Harms from the ban..............................................................................................50 Is doping against the ‘spirit of sport’?........................................................................................... 54 Pro: Safe-guarding the ‘spirit of sport’............................................................................. 54 Contra: ‘Spirit of sport’ demands doping.......................................................................... 56 Pro: Preventing dehumanization of the athlete................................................................. 57 Contra: The athlete as the first post-human?.................................................................... 58 Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 59 2 Chapter III - Is there a better way to address this issue?.........................................................63 Balancing ethics and feasibility..................................................................................................... 64 Option 1 - Scratching the ‘spirit of sport’ criterion......................................................... 64 Option 2 - Moral relativist approach............................................................................... 66 Option 3 - Harm reduction approach............................................................................... 68 Option 4 - Physiological approach................................................................................... 70 Option 5 – Pharmacological libertarianism approach.....................................................72 Discussion.......................................................................................................................................73 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................76 References..................................................................................................................................... 80 3 Abstract The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was created in 1999 with the goal of making elite competitive sports free of doping practices. Since then, it has grown into a powerful organization that oversees national anti-doping institutions and a majority of international sports federations. Anti-doping regulations means that the use of performance enhancement drugs (PEDs) or methods is prohibited in elite sports competition, and athletes who do not comply are sanctioned through a ban from competition and loss of titles and prizes link to them. The recent discovery of a systematic doping scheme in Russia has shown that the regulations currently in place have failed to offer the ‘clean’ environment promised to athletes and the public. While there is an understandable call to reform WADA’s practices to further the anti-doping fight, I suggest that the purpose of WADA itself should also be reconsidered. In taking a step back from the current controversy and urge for stricter regulations, this thesis will first ask if performance enhancement in sports should really be understood as unethical and undesirable. Favouring a interdisciplinary approach to this problematic, I will take a look at the scholarly debate on doping and critically analyze arguments from both positions including theoretical ideas on doping itself and practical concerns about WADA’s current measures to prevent doping. This overview, while it does provide an unequivocal answer about the ethicality of doping, will show a wide range of counterarguments to the prevailing anti-doping stance, and raise numerous concerns about the current system. In doing so, it indicates the need for a larger, inclusive of all stakeholders, deliberation on the anti-doping position, a position which remains so far mostly uncontested outside of academia. In the second part of my thesis, this rejection of a by-default anti stance to doping in sports will then lead me to explore whether there is a more suited alternative to dealing with issue of doping in elite sports than the current zero tolerance approach. Finally, I conclude that a harm reduction approach provides a suitable answer to both moral concerns and issues of feasibility, even though it may be difficult to incorporate into WADA given the number of stakeholders involved. Still, the identification of this alternative, conjointly with the Russian scandal, serves to justify why there should be further deliberation about WADA and the anti- doping movement that goes beyond accepting the status quo and the Agency’s idealist notion of achieving completely doping-free sports. 4 Résumé L’Agence Mondiale Antidopage (AMA) fut créée en 1999 avec comme objectif d’éliminer complètement le dopage lors des compétitions sportives élites. Depuis, l’Agence est devenue une organisation puissante supervisant les organisations nationales antidopage ainsi qu’une majorité de fédérations internationales sportives. Les réglementations antidopage impliquent que l’utilisation de substances ou méthodes améliorant les performances est interdite lors de compétitions élites. Les athlètes contrevenant à ces règles doivent être sanctionnés par une interdiction de participation aux compétitions ainsi que par la perte de titres et de prix monétaires liés à ceux-ci. Récemment, la découverte d’un stratagème de dopage systématique en Russie a montré que les réglementations en place ont échouées dans leur promesse
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