American Academy of Pediatrics on Doping

Today, the AAP published a Policy Statement on the Use of Performance-Enhancing Substances.

It dismisses ‘scare tactics’ of health care professionals, suggesting that denying the performance-enhancing effects of substances to the young athlete is ineffective, as a means of prevention. The pediatrician must ‘have an understanding of the incentives for use’ and they define the problem as due to the drive for success in our contemporary society.

Of particular interest is that they identify ‘limitations of current definitions’ of doping, calling for a more restrictive definition that takes into account the possible different kinds of users. Specifically, they want a definitin that protects the most vulnerable kinds of users, in their case, a concern for minors.

They also dismiss the strategy of testing, as a method of prevention, identifying the need for education and evaluation of education programmes, which rarely happens.

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Andy Miah is an IEET Fellow, a Reader in New Media & Bioethics at the University of the West of Scotland, UK. He is author of Genetically Modified Athletes (2004) and is currently working on The Medicalisation of Cyberspace and CyberSport: Digital Games, Ethics & Cultures' (The MIT Press, 2007).