Doctors Are Not Gods

Doctors with Borders: A Definitional Argument to Prove Doctors Aren’t Gods Doctors have long been known and looked to as the one of the barriers between life and death. Even in the beginning when medicine was nothing more than experiment, Doctors were viewed as a higher authority; capable of providing aid in any situation. This allusion, has carried on to present time and led many to believe that Doctors possess the abilities of gods; and they are in fact gods themselves (Jeffrey Braithwaite 92). In all actuality, however, Doctors are not gods. A God is defined, according to the Oxford English dictionary “as a superhuman person regarded as having power over nature and human fortune.” They are also all-knowing beings who possess the knowledge of all the world, and those who inhabit the earth. A God can decide who lives, and who dies by using their superhuman powers to direct people’s lives in the direction which they want them to go. Doctors are referred to as gods even though they are incapable of possessing many of the characteristics which are present within the definitions which define gods. Doctors do not have power over nature and …show more content…
Doctors want to possess the power over life and death, they “want to be gods” (Dyer 64). At least that is the way the media portrayed Doctors actions as they covered the British Medical Associations decision on withholding patient life sustaining care (Dyer 64). Doctors in Britain, as they made it seem, could make the decision for when patient care should be terminated without the consent of anyone else. The article which covered the committee’s decision went on to proclaim, “Doctors were effectively given greater powers yesterday to end the life of seriously ill patients” (Dyer 64). The claim that Doctors wish to be gods is unprecedented. The decision made proclaiming Doctors right to withdrawal care was not made by Doctors, it was much rather made by a