The world has become so technologically advanced and adept that failure is no longer regarded as acceptable. When defects can be fixed before babies are born, when hearts can be restarted with a shock of electricity, when calling Mumbai is as simple as calling Boston, it is hard to fathom that people in some instances can be beyond human reach.

This harsh reality is coming into focus in Utah where six miners were trapped by the collapse of a coal mine more than two weeks ago. The men were trapped more than 1,500 feet below ground in the Crandall Canyon Mine on Aug. 6. Company officials say an earthquake caused a portion of the coal mine to collapse. Seismologists say the collapse registered as a 3.9 magnitude event. Rescue efforts began by drilling narrow holes to send food and water to the men and to lower equipment to listen and look for signs of life.

The next phase involved rescue workers tunneling through the mine to reach the six. This was abandoned when a second collapse killed three rescuers and injured six others.

On Sunday, a mine spokesman said the men may never be found. The last of four holes that had been drilled into the mine found no sign of life or the conditions to sustain it. A fifth hole, which would take more than four days to complete, was planned.

Relatives of the miners were understandably upset. Leaving the bodies in the mine would bring no closure, no hope.

At a time when spacecraft can be repaired hundreds of miles above the Earth and genes rearranged under a microscope to fight a disease, it is hard to understand that men trapped beneath the ground cannot be rescued.

Stories of dramatic rescues fuel hope. Randal McCloy, a 27-year-old miner, survived being trapped in the Sago mine in West Virginia for more than three days. Eleven of his co-workers died. They were less than 300 feet underground. But such rescues are the exception. Every year, thousands of coal miners die, most of them in China. Since 2003, 144 coal miners have been killed in the United States.

As optimism fades in Utah, the reality that not every rescue has a positive ending is hard to accept, but it shows that human ingenuity and technology have their limits.