Friday, April 25, 2014

[PHI 2200] On playing the 'Playing God' card

In The Suicide Tourist, Craig Ewert makes the following comment:
There are people who will look at this and say, "No, suicide is wrong. God has forbidden it. You cannot play God and take your own life." Well, all right, fine. But you know what? This ventilator is playing God. If I had lived without access to technology, chances are I would be dead now, all right? When premature babies are born, they are given intensive medical treatment. Their lives are saved because doctors and nurses are playing God. They're saying, essentially, "God's plan was that this person would die right now. We're thwarting that. We're playing God."
And you know, they never say, "We have to stop organ transplants. We have to stop saving premature babies. We have to let them die." Oh, no. For that, it's OK to play God. It's only when it might ease somebody's suffering that, "Oh, we can't play God" comes out.
Ewert's comment can be construed as an argument as follows:
  1. If it is morally impermissible to "play God" in order to ease the suffering of a terminal patient, then it is morally impermissible to "play God" in order to save a premature baby.
  2. It is morally permissible to "play God" in order to save the life of a premature baby.
  3. Therefore, it is morally permissible to "play God" in order to ease the suffering of a terminal patient.
What do you make of this argument? Is it sound?

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