Abstract
There is a long history and growing evidence base that the use of drugs, such as anabolic-androgenic steroids, to enhance human performance is common amongst armed forces, including in Australia. We should not be surprised that this might have occurred for it has long been predicted by observers. It is a commonplace of many recent discussion of the future of warfare and future military technology to proclaim the imminent arrival of Super Soldiers, whose capacities are modified via drugs, digital technology and genetic engineering, in ways that increase their performance exponentially. This is what some observers have referred to as the “Gladiator Model” wherein the aim is to create soldiers able to perform feats of which ordinary citizens are not capable. One key aspect of this “gladiator project” is the use of illicit drugs to enhance performance. Could we use drugs, such as steroids or amphetamines, to enhance performance? Should we use such drugs? In this paper we explore the ethics of creating Super Soldiers, and raise issues of consent, coercion and the extent to which such use is permitted or condemned by just war theory. We conclude that much will depend on the extent to which such use is harmful to the soldiers themselves and this is still an open question.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Appel, J. M. 2008. When the boss turns pusher: a proposal for employee protections in the age of cosmetic neurology. Journal of Medical Ethics 34 (8): 616. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2007.022723.
Baggish, A. L., R. B. Weiner, G. Kanayama, J. I. Hudson, M. T. Lu, U. Hoffmann, and H. G. Pope. 2017. Cardiovascular toxicity of Illicit Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use. Circulation 135 (21): 1991–2002. doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.026945.
Baum, M., S. Sattler, and M. Reimann. 2021. Towards an understanding of how stress and resources affect the nonmedical use of prescription drugs for performance enhancement among employees. Current Psychology. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01873-7.
Beiner, J. M., P. Jokl, J. Cholewicki, and M. M. Panjabi. 1999. The effect of anabolic steroids and corticosteroids on healing of muscle contusion injury. American Journal Of Sports Medicine 27 (1): 2–9. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/03635465990270011101.
Bonomo, Y., A. Norman, S. Biondo, R. Bruno, M. Daglish, S. Dawe,. . D. Castle. 2019. The australian drug harms ranking study. Journal of Psychopharmacology 33 (7): 759–768. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881119841569.
Bucher, J. 2012. Soldiering with substance: Substance and Steroid Use among Military Personnel. Journal of Drug Education 42 (3): 267–292. doi:https://doi.org/10.2190/DE.42.3.b.
Burleigh, M. 2011. Moral Combat: good and evil in World War two. London: Harper Collins.
Chegeni, R., S. Pallesen, J. McVeigh, and D. Sagoe. 2021. Anabolic-androgenic steroid administration increases self-reported aggression in healthy males: a systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 238 (7): 1911–1922. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05818-7.
Christiansen, A. V., A. S. Vinther, and D. Liokaftos. 2017. Outline of a typology of men’s use of anabolic androgenic steroids in fitness and strength training environments*. Drugs: Education Prevention and Policy 24 (3): 295–305. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2016.1231173.
Clarke, S., J. Savalescu, C. A. J. Coady, and S. Sanyal, eds. 2016. The Ethics of Human Enhancement: understanding the debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coady, C. A. J. 2008. Morality and political violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coates, A. J. 1997. The Ethics of War. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Coppetiers, B., and N. Fotion, eds. 2002. Moral Constraints on War: principles and cases. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.
Duxbury, A., and M. Groves. 2016. Military justice in the modern age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Farah, M. J., J. Illes, R. Cook-Deegan, H. Gardner, E. Kandel, P. King,. . P. R. Wolpe. 2004. Neurocognitive enhancement: what can we do and what should we do? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5 (5): 421–425. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1390.
Forlini, C., and E. Racine. 2009. Autonomy and coercion in academic “Cognitive Enhancement” using methylphenidate: perspectives of key stakeholders. Neuroethics 2 (3): 163–177. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-009-9043-y.
Fotion, N., and G. Elfstrom. 1986. Military Ethics: guidelines for peace and war. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Friedl, K. E. 2015. U.S. Army Research on Pharmacological Enhancement of Soldier Performance: stimulants, anabolic hormones, and blood doping. J Strength Cond Res 29 (Suppl 11): S71–S76. doi:https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000001027.
Friscolanti, M. 2005. Friendly fire: the Untold Story of the U.S. Bombing that killed four canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Mississauga ON: John Wiley and Sons.
Goodley, H. 2020. Pharmacological performance enhancement and the military: Exploring an ethical and legal framework for ‘supersoldiers’. Retrieved from London, UK: https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/2020-11-11-pharma-enhancement-military-goodley_0.pdf.
Gorea, R. K. 2016. Financial impact of road traffic accidents on the society. International Journal of Ethics, Trauma & Victimology, 2(1).
Hartgens, F., and H. Kuipers. 2004. Effects of androgenic-anabolic steroids in athletes. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N. Z.) 34 (8): 513–554. doi:https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434080-00003.
Hauger, L. E., I. A. Havnes, M. L. Jørstad, and A. Bjørnebekk. 2021. Anabolic androgenic steroids, antisocial personality traits, aggression and violence. Drug And Alcohol Dependence 221: 108604. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108604.
Kanayama, G., K. J. Brower, R. I. Wood, J. I. Hudson, and H. G. Pope Jr. 2009. Anabolic–androgenic steroid dependence: an emerging disorder. Addiction 104 (12): 1966–1978. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02734.x.
Kaufman, M. J., A. C. Janes, J. I. Hudson, B. P. Brennan, G. Kanayama, A. R. Kerrigan,. . H. G. Pope. 2015. Brain and cognition abnormalities in long-term anabolic-androgenic steroid users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 152: 47–56. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.04.023.
Kayser, B., and B. Broers. 2012. The Olympics and harm reduction? Harm Reduction Journal 9 (1): 33. doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-9-33.
Liivoja, R., and A. Duxbury. 2019. Human Rights of Service Personnel. Human Rights Defender 28 (2): 13015.
Loland, S. 2002. Fair Play in Sport: a Moral Norm System. New York: Routledge.
Mazanov, J. 2017. Anti-Doping in Sport and Human Enhancing Technologies in Army. Australian Army Research Centre. Available here: https://researchcentre.army.gov.au/library/land-power-forum/anti-doping-sport-and-human-enhancing-technologies-army.
Miah, A. 2004. Genetically modified Athlees: Bioemdical Ethics, Gene Doping and Sport. New York: Routledge.
Miller, D. 1976. Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Moore, D. 2008. Erasing pleasure from public discourse on illicit drugs: on the creation and reproduction of an absence. International Journal of Drug Policy 19 (5): 353–358. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2007.07.004.
Mulrooney, K. J. D., and K. van de Ven. 2019. ‘the fittest on earth’: deviant leisure and the use of performance and image enhancement drugs within CrossFit communities. In Deviant leisure: contemporary perspectives on leisure and harm, eds. O. Smith, and T. Raymen, UK: Palgrave.
Mulrooney, K. J. D., K. van de Ven, J. McVeigh, and R. Collins. 2019. Steroid madness- has the dark side of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) been over-stated? Performance Enhancement & Health 6 (3): 98–102. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2019.03.001.
Nutt, D. J., L. A. King, and L. D. Phillips. 2010. Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet 376 (9752): 1558–1565. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6.
Orend, B. 2002. Justice after War. Ethics and Inrternational Affairs 16 (1): 43–56.
Peltier, C., and K. Pettijohn. 2018. The future of steroids for performance enhancement in the U.S. military. Military Medicine 183 (7–8): 151–153. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usy093.
Pennay, A., and D. Moore. 2010. Exploring the micro-politics of normalisation: narratives of pleasure, self-control and desire in a sample of young australian ‘party drug’ users. Addiction Research & Theory 18 (5): 557–571. doi:https://doi.org/10.3109/16066350903308415.
Savalescu, J., B. Foddy, and M. Clayton. 2004. Why we should allow performance enhancing drugs in sport. British Jounral of Sports Medicine 38: 666–670. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2003.005249.
Simon, Robert L. 2004. Fair play: the Ethics of Sport. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Tugendhat, T., and L. Croft. 2013. The fog of Law: an introduction to the legal Erosion of british fighting power. London: Policy Exchange.
van Amsterdam, J., D. Nutt, L. Phillips, and W. van den Brink. 2015. European rating of drug harms. Journal of Psychopharmacology 29 (6): 655–660. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881115581980.
Walsh, A., and R. Giulianotti. 2007. Ethics,Money and Sport: this Sporting Mammon. Oxford: Routledge.
Walzer, M. 1978. Just and unjust wars: a Moral argument with historical illustrations. London: Allen Lane.
Whyte, I., E. Pattinson, S. Leyland, I. Soos, and J. Ling. 2021. Performance and image enhancing drugs use in active military personnel and veterans: a contemporary review. Translational Sports Medicine 4 (1): 72–87. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/tsm2.186.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Walsh, A., Van de Ven, K. Human enhancement drugs and Armed Forces: an overview of some key ethical considerations of creating ‘Super-Soldiers’. Monash Bioeth. Rev. 41, 22–36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-022-00170-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-022-00170-8