Steroids In Baseball

In today’s professional sports world, the use of anabolic steroids or any other performance enhancing drugs have caused an uproar in a vast majority of sports played by some of the most notable and influential athletes. In popular sports such as football and basketball, the use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs have been commonly linked to players on the major league baseball diamond. During the early 2000s, baseball was at an all-time high with record breaking athletes who had shattered milestones that had stood for years, but along with the successes, emerged the controversial investigation led by league officials for potential steroids and performance enhancing drug use. Notable Athletes from Curt Schilling to Mark McGwire to Sammy …show more content…
Based on the use of both Utilitarian and Kantian ethical arguments, individuals can make the conclusion that the MLB is fully responsible for the tarnishment of the organization because the actions taken during the steroid crisis were extremely immoral and that the organization did not take any responsibility for the consequences that the owners, players, and fans had to endure from the game that was once America's most beloved …show more content…
We see that the subjective “ends” that the players were hoping to achieve were the overall increase in their performance that accompanied their legacy and individual accomplishments in baseball. Also, using Kant’s theory of ethics, individuals can raise the question of why the MLB association covered up the issue of steroids and performance enhancing drugs for so long as a key part of understanding of who is at fault for these immoral actions. This is exactly what All- Star Jose Canseco was trying to say while he took the stand and was under oath in 2005. On the stand, Canseco stated that the MLB was in fact , “an organization that can choose to exploit its players for the increased revenue that lines its pockets and then sacrifice those same players to protect the web of secrecy that was hidden for many years”(qtd. in Jennings 142). This testimony given that day not only gives individuals insight on the reasons why the MLB association covered up the drug use by its players but provides the underlying evidence that proves that the organizations subjective “ends” were the pursuit of increasing profit. For Kant, the consequences of the actions do not matter, rather the fulfillment of one’s duty in a situation is most important. The players in the controversy, have arguably, fulfilled

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