Academic researchers and policy experts advocated the acceptance of pharmacological performance-enhancement by mentally-competent, healthy individuals in a thought-provoking commentary in the journal Nature.
The authors of the commentary restricted their argument to cognitive-enhancing drugs such as Adderall, Ritalin and Provigil, but every facet of their argument, point by point, holds relevance for a “presumption” that healthy individuals, not competing in drug-tested sports, should be able to engage in physical enhancement using anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. They call for policy on performance-enhancing drugs to be based on a rational, evidence-based approach.
The authors, which include Nature editor-in-chief Philip Campbell, point out that the acceptance of elective, enhancements for healthy individuals has been widely accepted in certain medical specialties (”Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy,” December 7).
Physicians who view medicine as devoted to healing will view such prescribing as inappropriate, whereas those who view medicine more broadly as helping patients live better or achieve their goals would be open to considering such a request. There is certainly a precedent for this broader view in certain branches of medicine, including plastic surgery, dermatology, sports medicine and fertility medicine.
The authors do attempt to distinguish pharmacological physical enhancement as a form of cheating, as contrasted with cognitive enhancement, but ONLY in the context of sport.
