Philippe Liotard

About the author: Philippe Liotard is a professor at the Sports Faculty of the University of Monpellier, France, and the cofounder of Quasimodo magazine.

Medical ethics are being challenged by the demand for treatments intended to enhance a person's physical appearance and social performance, such as anti-aging treatments and cosmetic surgery, which are not directly related to the goal of good health. Doctors involved in sport medicine now find themselves at the center of this ethical dilemma. They face enormous pressure to go beyond merely treating an athlete's fatigue and pain to prescribing performance-enhancing drugs. However, doctors should not reinforce society's emphasis on performance at all costs by prescribing drugs that mask pain and illness and put an athlete's health in jeopardy.

On the eve of the Sydney Olympic Games [fall 2000], sport medicine is faced with...