ABSTRACT
The area of human endeavor that has seen the most explosive growth in performance-enhancing drug use is almost certainly sport. At the highest levels of competitive sports, where athletes strain to improve performances already at the limits of human ability, the temptation to use a drug that might provide an edge can be powerful. Many athletes persist in using performance-enhancing drugs despite official disapproval, possible disqualification, and even risk to their own health. They do so in the face of expert opinion, which casts doubt on the effectiveness of the drugs they take. Reasons commonly given to limit liberty fall into three classes: those that claim that the practice interferes with capacities for rational choice; those that emphasize harms to self; and those that emphasize harms to others. The case of performance-enhancing drugs and sport illustrates a fourth reason that may justify some interference with liberty, a phenomenon we can call “inherent coerciveness.”
