Playing God

Playing God refers to someone supposedly taking on the role of God for other purposes, also referred to as apotheosis. Alleged acts of playing God may include, for example, deciding who should live or die in a situation where not everyone can be saved, and the use and development of biotechnologies such as synthetic biology and in vitro fertilisation. Usually the expression is used to invoke a precautionary principle or to suggest that someone should refrain from a controversial action.
Philip Ball has argued that "playing God" is a meaningless and dangerous cliché that has no basis in theology; claiming instead, that it was adopted by theocons from the 1931 film version of Frankenstein, and has been used by journalists to refer to things they disagree with. Alexandre Erler, in response to Ball, has argued that while the phrase is not meaningless, it is extremely vague and requires further clarification for it to be useful within the context of an argument.