ABSTRACT

One of the claims sometimes advanced in favour of anti-doping is that allowing doping would lead to a uniform increase in performance in comparison to no doping. The idea is that if all athletes would use doping, this would just shift the playing field to a higher level without a change in ranking, but at a higher health cost. In this paper, we critique this contention. We first develop our theoretical framework, with reference to the so-called Red Queen effect. We then argue that, if doping were allowed, Red Queen effects would not be the rule. We also show that to some extent Red Queen effects would occur, but these would not necessarily be morally problematic. We end by developing an argument in favour of a more liberal approach of doping, since such would allow escaping from today’s runaway effects of anti-doping efforts.

摘要

有时支持反兴奋剂的主张之一是，与不掺杂相比，允许掺杂会导致性能的均匀提高。这个想法是，如果所有运动员都使用兴奋剂，这只会在不改变排名的情况下将比赛场地转移到更高的水平，但会付出更高的健康成本。在本文中，我们批评了这一论点。我们首先发展我们的理论框架，参考所谓的红皇后效应。然后我们争辩说，如果允许使用兴奋剂，红皇后效应就不会成为规则。我们还表明，在某种程度上，红皇后效应会发生，但这些在道德上不一定有问题。我们最后提出了一个支持更自由的兴奋剂方法的论点，因为这样可以避免当今反兴奋剂工作的失控影响。