Ethics Assignment

Xiaoling Jiao

Apr 25th 2017

Ethics Assignment

Lance Armstrong’s impact on cycling is a complex topic since someone asked about the positive effects he had after he admitted doping. Although most people abhor doping, which seems make the issue clear, Lance Armstrong’s effects are still beyond been net positive or negative.

There are two main ethical theories which are utilitarianism and Kantianism. Firstly, the idea of utilitarianism is that actions and decisions should be evaluated in terms of their goals, or expected consequences. Based on utilitarianism, when people think about the ethics of Lance Armstrong’s behavior, intentions or results are most important factors. Specifically, Lance Armstrong does have some positive effects on the sport of cycling. For example, Lance Armstrong gets Discovery Channel’s support for his team from his impact on profile of cycling, international and national race appearances. Also, Lance Armstrong’s Tour success inspires many people to get on bikes and keep a healthier lifestyle, which is overall good for the cycling career. However, the bad effects of Lance Armstrong’s behavior cannot be neglected. Lance Armstrong’s doping behavior leads to lost income and sponsorship to non-doping riders, pro-teams and other areas of cycling. What is more, his behavior leads to the costs of Lance Armstrong initiated lawsuits against individuals and the costs of lawsuits against Lance Armstrong like the SCA case and Floyd Landis case, which would hurt athletes. His sponsorship also declines due to his cheating behavior, which badly affects his sports career. Last but not least, Lance Armstrong was the iconic figure for many Americans. His doping behavior during the peak of his Tour de France years hurts teammates and all the fans. Meanwhile, his behavior incites some other athletes’ doping behavior.

 Another theory is Kantianism. The approach Kantianism mainly takes to decide ethics is to think about whether the ways are moral and legal instead of focusing on results. In terms of laws, doping is obviously illegal. Lance Armstrong’s behavior is unethical and violates sports spirit. However, doping remains complex in the sport of cycling, which is an endurance sport. In the case, some teams and riders regard doping as a “nuclear weapon” like an implicit rule to win not an “absolutely illegal or immoral” method. Importantly, someone also complains about those intense testing programs, which makes every single one of its athlete into a suspect, decreasing the sport level. It is true that laws or moral rules are not always the only right ways to evaluate the ethics of behavior. However, doping is against the law. Increasing sports level and body endurance by doping are illegal and immoral.