Oliver Morton

About the author: Oliver Morton is a freelance writer and a contributing editor at Wired and Newsweek International.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs should be permitted in an Open Olympics that would take place alongside a separate Olympics in which drug use is prohibited. Instead of feeling compelled to take drugs in order to compete effectively, athletes would have a real choice as to whether or not they will remain drug-free. This parallel system would also offer greater protection to the health and well-being of those athletes who decide to use drugs, since they could openly seek the advice of health professionals. Using drugs to boost performance is just another manifestation of the way people have blurred the boundary between the human and the technological.

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