{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.033417721518987344, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0005063291139240507, 'mean_word_length': 4.34054054054054, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 1, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Should Doctors Play God?

"Should doctors play God?" is the frequently unwritten but often quoted question posed to all groups debating, considering, or contemplating the impact of modern knowledge upon medical practice. The question is almost always asked in a tone that allows only the response "of course not," after which ethical analysis proceeds to show how such an arrogant stance by doctors can be avoided or averted. It must be clear that there is a concept behind that question that implies a negative connotation for the word "play." Playing is envisioned as impersonating, pretending to be what one is not. The implication is that play will have permanent consequences, that play is more than make believe. The concept of play is in fact enormously complex. The word is used as a noun, a transitive verb, and an intransitive verb. It is a performance and the script for a performance; it can denote a serious act or a jest, a pronouncement or a pun. In the phrase "Should doctors play God?" play is defined "to act the part in real life"—one of seventy-four definable usages. North Carolina allergist Claude Frazier edited a book titled by our phrase. In that book Mrs. Billy Graham wrote in the foreword: "IfI were an actress who was going to play, let's say, Joan of Arc, I would learn all there is to learn about Joan of Arc. And, if I were a doctor or anyone else trying to play God, I would learn all I could about God. When one does this, one learns one cannot play God. One can only obey him or disobey him" [1, p. vii]. There is another concept embodied in the verb "to play": "to exercise or employ oneself in diversion"—playing is not altogether serious. Play is associated with children. It is pleasurable. For children these two concepts of play are in fact intertwined. Children play very seriously. They act out the world they do not understand. They imitate their parents to master the ideas that their parents convey. They imitate their parents to