Sports are more than just "games." They can unite countries, start wars, and revolutionize views on race, class, and gender. Through works from philosophy, sociology, medicine, and law, this collection explores intersections of sports and ethics, and identifies the immense role of sports in shaping and reflecting social values.

We encourage children to play sports from an early age in order to instill in them such virtues as teamwork, perseverance, respect, fairness, and discipline, but, as perennial scandals in the headlines show us, sports also give rise to thorny ethical problems. Can the ugly, corrupt side of sports counteract their potential to deepen our moral lives and make a positive impact? This accessible book tackles a wide-ranging array of topics that arise in ethics of sport on every level, from amateur to professional, and from the general to the specific. Ethics of sport expert Robert Simon examines provocative, thorny questions throughout the book: Why do we care so much about sports? Do sports embody special values that social function views fail to grasp? Are such values good or bad? What counts as overemphasizing winning? Should winning be important in youth sports? What makes cheating in sports ethically objectionable? Is trash-talking cheating? How have performance enhancing drugs affected sport? Can we distinguish them from other advances that enhance performance, such as technological improvements in equipment? Should contact sports be modified to protect the health of athletes? Do organized athletics belong in schools? Don't athletic programs undermine academics in secondary and college education? Would it be better to separate sports and education, so schools focus on academics? Do sports undermine or reinforce gender equity? Why do so many elite athletes misbehave? How have professional sports affected minority groups and the underprivileged? Is money ruining elite sport? Simon's short exploration of the ethics of sports, which unfolds in this series' distinctive question-and-answer format, will interest sports enthusiasts, those who seek to understand the ethical controversies in sport even from an outsider's perspective, and students of applied ethics who need a primer on sports ethics in particular.

Timely, accessible, and focused on practical application, Ethics of Sport & Athletics: Theory, Issues, and Applications, Second Edition, details the theories and mechanics of moral reasoning, ethical and unethical behavior in sport, and the development of moral education through sport. This well-organized, case-based approach to sport-related dilemmas teaches readers how to successfully apply moral reasoning skills in good decision making to ensure confidence in sports management. Extensively updated with real-world examples drawn from the latest sports headlines, this Second Edition is designed to help readers grapple with the many complicated ethical challenges they’ll encounter in today’s sports professions, including performance enhancement, violence in sports, and racial and gender discrimination. An expanded emphasis on applying knowledge and concepts in sport management further equips readers to confront specific scenarios, ultimately improving the overall moral integrity of sport without diminishing its competitive element.

The book aims to establish a critical dialogue between sports ethicists and bioethicists across the range of sporting disciplines at elite level. It will address questions such as: are the increasingly intrusive testing methods of elite sports compatible with the right to autonomy and privacy granted to patients in general medicine? could there be a moral obligation to correct injustices produced by the genetic lottery? how should the goals of sports medicine be viewed from the perspective of rationing scarce health care resources? This book was published as a special issue in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy.

This volume presents articles which focus on the ethical evaluation of performance-enhancing technologies in sport. The collection considers whether drug doping should be banned; the rationale of not banning ethically contested innovations such as hypoxic chambers; and the implications of the prospects of human genetic engineering for the notion of sport as a development of ’natural’ talent towards human excellence. The essays demonstrate the significance of the principles of preventing harm, ensuring fairness and preserving meaning to appraise whether a particular performance enhancer is acceptable in the context of sport. Selected essays on various forms of human enhancement outside of sport that highlight other principles and concepts are included for comparative purpose. Sport enhancement provides a useful starting point to work through the ethics of enhancement in other human practices and endeavors, and sport enhancement ethics should track broader bioethical debates on human enhancement. As a whole, the volume points to the need to consider the values and meanings that people seek in a given sphere of human activity and their associated principles to arrive at a morally grounded and reasonable approach to enhancement ethics.

The Ethics of Coaching Sports features invited contributions written by prominent scholars examining a broad range of normative or evaluative issues that arise from the role of the coach in competitive sports. The collection is accessible and comprehensive, including discussion of concrete issues in coaching, such as the distribution of playing time, bullying, the implications of recent events surrounding the Pennsylvania State scandal, and Title IX and gender equity. The contributing authors also explore the larger ethical considerations of the role of the coach as educator, leader, and moral role model; special considerations when coaching children; and an examination of the failures of coaches to meet appropriate standards when they do not respect their players and their programs. Each contributor presents the main arguments and positions relevant to their chosen topic and, with the ground set, the authors then seek to advance the reader's theoretical and philosophical understanding of coaching. Robert L. Simon's introductions to each of the book's four parts help to summarize the main theses of the contributors' chapters and examine differences between how each author approaches their chosen subject. Study questions are also provided for each chapter, making The Ethics of Coaching Sports the perfect companion for classes on sports ethics and coaching.

This is a text for students in sport philosophy, sport ethics, sport management and sport studies courses, as well as a reference for professionals with an interest in sport ethics. World-renowned experts examine the moral and ethical issues surrounding sport in contemporary society, addressing current debates.