Are Doctor's Playing God?

A newspaper article, about plans by surgeons in New York to transplant an entire womb from a brain-dead donor into a living woman, set me thinking. Is modern medicine playing God? Think about it. Doctors can now transplant so many human organs: the heart, kidney and liver, to name a few. In addition to this, there are mechanical devices to replace knees, joint, even an entire hip. The day may not be far off when every body part can be replicated or replaced.

This begs the question. If doctors will one day be able to "manufacture" an entire human being, will nature and even God become redundant? I hardly think so. A whole human being is far more than the sum of his individual parts. What makes him "human" is the spark of life – sometimes referred to as the soul. And this will always remain God’s exclusive domain. Television’s six million (probably 6o million today, thanks to inflation) dollar man may become a reality in the next twenty years; but all that expensive hardware can be extinguished and rendered useless in the blink of an eye, by removing the life force.

Modern medicine is in a self-congratulatory mode these days – and deservedly so. The advances and minor miracles are coming thick and fast. There is even talk of extending human life expectancy to 150 years and more by the next 50 years – probably more than nature intended. In a sense, then, doctors are playing God. However, before they get ahead of themselves, they would do well to remember they will always be subservient to a higher power. When all is said and done, everything that happens on this planet is at His pleasure.