Abstract
Success in sport can provide a source of national pride for a society, and vast financial and personal rewards for an individual athlete. It is therefore not surprising that many athletes will go to great lengths in pursuit of success. The provision of healthcare for elite sports people has the potential to create many ethical issues for sports doctors; however there has been little discussion of them to date. This study highlights these issues. Respondents to a questionnaire identified many ethical matters, common to other areas of medicine. However they also raised problems unique to sports medicine. Some of these ethical difficulties arise out of the place of the sports doctor within the hierarchy of sport. Yet others arise out of the special relationship between sports doctors and individual players/athletes. This study raises some important questions regarding the governance of healthcare in sport, and what support and guidance is available to sports doctors. As medical and scientific intervention in sport escalates, there is a risk that demands for enhanced performance may compromise the health of the athlete, and the role the sports doctor plays remains a critical question.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (73.3 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Bernstein J., Perlis C., Bartolozzi A. R. Ethics in sports medicine. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2000 Sep;(378):50–60. doi: 10.1097/00003086-200009000-00009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Boudreau F., Konzak B. Ben Johnson and the use of steroids in sport: sociological and ethical considerations. Can J Sport Sci. 1991 Jun;16(2):88–98. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Flint F. A., Weiss M. R. Returning injured athletes to competition: a role and ethical dilemma. Can J Sport Sci. 1992 Mar;17(1):34–40. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Orchard J. The use of local anaesthetic injections in professional football. Br J Sports Med. 2001 Aug;35(4):212–213. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.35.4.212. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pipe A. L. J. B. Wolffe Memorial Lecture. Sport, science, and society: ethics in sports medicine. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1993 Aug;25(8):888–900. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sperryn P. N. Ethics in sports medicine--the sports physician. Br J Sports Med. 1980 Jul;14(2-3):84–89. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.14.2-3.84. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Waddington I., Roderick M. Management of medical confidentiality in English professional football clubs: some ethical problems and issues. Br J Sports Med. 2002 Apr;36(2):118–123. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.36.2.118. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]