Wesley J. Smith
Lawyer and award winning author, Wesley J. Smith, is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. He is also a consultant to the Patients Rights Council. In May 2004, because of his work in bioethics, Smith was named one of the nation’s premier expert thinkers in bioengineering by the National Journal. In 2008, the Human Life Foundation named him a Great Defender of Life for his work against assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Smith left the full-time practice of law in 1985 to pursue a career in writing and public advocacy. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books. His Human Exceptionalism blog, hosted by National Review, is one of the premier blogs dealing with human life and dignity.
Smith’s latest book is The War on Humans (Discovery Institute Press, 2014) in which he investigates the views of anti-human activists who want to grant legal rights to animals, plants, and “Mother Earth,” and who want to reduce the human population by up to 90 percent.
His previous book was A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement, a searing critique of the ideology and tactics of the animal liberation movement and a rousing defense of the unique importance of human exceptionalism.
Smith’s book Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the New Duty to Die (1997, Times Books), a broad-based criticism of the assisted suicide/euthanasia movement, has become a classic in anti-euthanasia advocacy and is now in its third edition, published by Encounter Books in 2006. Smith’s Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, a warning about the dangers of the modern bioethics movement, was named one of the Ten Outstanding Books of the Year and Best Health Book of the Year for 2001 (Independent Publisher Book Awards). Smith also wrote Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, in which he explored the morality, science, and business aspects of human cloning, stem cell research, and genetic engineering. Smith is also a member of the editorial advisory board of Christian Bioethics, published by Oxford University Press.
He formerly collaborated with Ralph Nader, co-authoring four books with the consumer advocate. In addition, Smith co-authored (with Eric M. Chevlen, M.D.), Power Over Pain: How to Get the Pain Control You Need.
Smith has published hundreds of articles and opinion columns on issues such as the importance of being human (human exceptionalism), assisted suicide, bioethics, the morality of human cloning, the dangers of the animal-rights movement, anti-humanism within radical environmentalist advocacy, legal ethics, medical ethics, and public affairs. His writing has appeared nationally and internationally in Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, the Weekly Standard, National Review, The Age (Australia), The Telegraph (United Kingdom), Western Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Bioethics. He has also been published in regional publications throughout the U.S. and internationally in newspapers in the U.K., Italy, Australia, and Canada.
Throughout his career in public advocacy, Smith has appeared on thousands of television and radio talk/interview programs, including such national shows as ABC Nightline, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN’s World Report, the CBS Evening News, EWTN, C-SPAN, and Fox News Network, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs, including Coast to Coast and shows hosted by Dennis Miller, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and Al Kresta. He has appeared internationally on Voice of America, CNN International, and programs originating in Great Britain (BBC), Australia (ABC), Canada (CBC), Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, China, and Mexico.
Smith is often called upon by members of legislative and executive branches of government to advise on issues within his fields of expertise. He has testified as an expert witness in front of federal and state legislative committees, and has counseled government leaders internationally about matters of mutual concern.
Smith is an international lecturer and public speaker, appearing frequently at political, university, medical, legal, disability-rights, bioethics, religious, industry, and community gatherings across the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, and Australia and at the United Nations.
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There is no constitutional right to assisted suicide, so the courts keep ruling. In Washington v Glucksberg (1997), the Supreme Court of United States rejected an attempt to impose an assisted suicide Roe v. Wade. State supreme courts have rejected state ... -
Because There Can Never be Enough Suicide
In the Netherlands, there can never be enough suicide and euthanasia. Think about it. Terminally ill people can be terminated by doctors. Chronically ill people can be terminated by doctors. Elderly people with normal physical aging, can be terminated by ... -
AI Should Never Have ‘Rights’
Efforts to expand rights beyond the human realm are ubiquitous and reflect, in my view, a deep misanthropy and a threat to universal human rights. That includes the movement to declare sophisticated artificial intelligent machines (“strong AI,” not yet here) ... -
Humans Are Not Just Another Animal
There is too much anti-humanism around these days, efforts large and small that either state–or insinuate–that we are just another animal in the forest. Here’s a small example that I think it is worth noting for those ... -
Should We Starve Alzheimer's Patients?
The idea of starving a helpless elderly person to death used to be thought of as the most egregious crime. An abhorrence. Now, for some, it is merely another form of “death with dignity.” The assisted suicide advocacy organization Compassion ... -
Texas Requires MDs to Get Permission for DNRs
Texas’s futile care law is a disgrace, permitting hospital bioethics committees to kick patients off of wanted life-sustaining treatment. Until now, they could even impose DNRs on a patient’s chart before asking permission, and then notify the sick ... -
California Hospital Sued for Refusing to Assist Suicide
This lawsuit is a little before its time. Should assisted suicide become widely accepted in this country, activists will try to force all doctors to participate–either by doing the deed or referring to a doctor known to be willing ... -
U.N. Pushes ‘Right to Life’ for Some
The United Nations Rapporteur on the human “right to life” indicates that the UN is determined to make the right to life more relative and elastic than robust and near-absolute. The interpretation reluctantly allows the death penalty “for the most ... -
French Revolution Attacking the American Revolution
The Google firing confirms a working hypothesis I have been pondering recently. The French Revolution is attacking the American Revolution. The American Revolution was sparked by the Enlightenment, Judeo/Christian moral beliefs, mixed with Greek and Roman philosophy and political ... -
From "Pro-Choice" to "Reproductive Justice"
Listening to WAMU (NPR) guest Dorothy E. Roberts bemoan her belief that “pro-choice” doesn’t cut it any more as an effective advocacy slogan. As a replacement, she suggests, “reproductive justice,” which, Roberts opined, would allow abortion advocates to tie ... -
California to Outlaw Pet Stores Selling Many Pets
The animal rights movement–which must be distinguished from animal welfare–intends to outlaw all animal husbandry and the human use of animals. That includes pets. But they will be at the back end of the multi-generational animal rights project. ... -
Sen. Flake Slams ‘Wedge’ Conservatives for Terri Schiavo
Another day, another conservative blaming other conservatives for the political mess and divisions in the country. Well, whatever gets you on Face the Nation to tout your book Conscience of a Conservative. Not that conservatives haven’t contributed to the ... -
Charlie Gard has Died
Little Charlie Gard has died. He will be remembered for the intense love of his parents and the astonishing support they received from around the world in their vain attempt to care for the sick little boy and try to ... -
The High Cost of Charlie Gard Coercion
The American specialist finally allowed by the courts — after four months of cruel obstinacy — to examine Charlie Gard apparently concluded that the baby is now beyond his help. As a result, Chris and Connie, Charlie’s loving parents, have decided ... -
Dutch Euthanasia Is ‘Killing’
Apologists for euthanasia in the Netherlands often lie by omission. Rarely, for example, do they fully admit that the mentally ill are being killed. Nor do they discuss the conjoining of euthanasia with organ harvesting. Perhaps it a case of ... -
Charlie Gard Attorney: Kill Instead of Withdraw Life Support
As I reported here previously, the attorney representing the guardian of the catastrophically ill baby, Charlie Gard — and hence, who is representing Charlie Gard — and opposing allowing his parents to have control over his medical care, is the chairwoman of ... -
Charlie Gard Lawyer's Ideological Conflict of Interest
Advocates for letting Charlie Gard’s parents decide when and if to remove life support — and to allow Charlie to receive a last-ditch effort experimental treatment — are crying foul at the named-barrister appointed by the court to represent the guardian, ... -
Is Jahi McMath Alive?
Jahi McMath suffered catastrophic complications from throat surgery in December of 2013 — 3 1/2 years ago. She was soon declared to be brain dead, and Oakland Children’s Hospital informed her mother, Nailah Winkfield, that life support would be terminated. Winkfield sued, but ... -
Charlie Gard Has Happened Here Too
There is a proper international uproar over U.K. doctors winning the right in court to unilaterally remove the infant Charlie Gard from life support. Some have commented on the case as if that is a product of the UK’... -
Why We Will Never Control Health-Care Costs
On one hand bioethicists bemoan the high costs of medical care and promote health-care rationing for the elderly, seriously disabled, and dying. On the other, they promote expanding public or insurance funding of health care to ensure that people’s ... -
SCOTUS's Good News for Medical Conscience
The State of Missouri cannot discriminate against a church school’s request for a generally available grant based on religion, the SCOTUS has ruled. Having very quickly read the ruling — I won’t get into most of its intricacies — the ... -
Netherlander Euthanasia Guru Bemoans His Handiwork
Boudewijn Chabot was the Netherlander psychiatrist who assisted the suicide of a deeply depressed woman who wanted to die after the demise of her two children. All she wanted to do was be buried between them. Chabot met with her ... -
Euthanasia Abandons Despairing People to Worst Fears
A U.K. actress has announced she is seriously pondering euthanasia due to fears of being a “burden” when she can no longer care of herself. From the Manchester Evening News story: Actress Claire King had revealed that she is ... -
Young Doctors Rejecting Hippocratic Oath
Well this is certainly alarming. According to a Medscape poll, younger doctors are turning their backs on the Hippocratic Oath. According to the poll, to which readers began responding November 22, of those under age 34, 39% said it was very meaningful, compared ... -
‘River Rights’ Movement in USA
The drive to grant human-style rights to nature is accelerating — with little pushback. Rivers and glaciers in India, New Zealand, and Colombia have been granted rights. Now activists want that approach in the USA. From a column by Gary Wockner ... -
Medical Conscience Victory in Vermont
With the attacks on medical conscience increasing, some good news. Alliance Defending Freedom has successfully obtained a consent decree that protects doctors in Vermont from having to counsel about assisted suicide to legally qualified patients if they are morally or ... -
Expand Scope of Conscience Protection Act of 2017
As I have written here and elsewhere, the attacks on medical conscience are proliferating, and the ground is being prepared to strip doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. of the ability to practice their professions under the principles of Hippocratic ideals. I ... -
Ontario, Canada Euthanasia Tyranny Against MDs
Ontario, Canada has passed a law formally legalizing lethal injection euthanasia. And it will force all provincial doctors to be complicit by either doing the deed themselves to all legally qualified patients who request to be killed, or by tasking ... -
Nature Says Stop the ‘Anti-Science’ Slur
The recent March for Politics Science cast aspersion on their political opponents as “anti-science.” So did opponents of President George W. Bush’s embryonic stem cell funding policy. So have many others for many years as a way of prevailing ... -
Euthanizing Mentally Ill OK, Kosher Slaughter Not
It makes my head hurt. Belgium’s largest region has outlawed kosher and halal slaughter of cows. From the Independent story: Belgium’s Wallooon region has voted to ban kosher and halal meats by outlawing the slaughter of unstunned animals. ... -
Destroyed Embryos Turned Into Jewelry
Illustrating the crassness of our age, a jewelry company implants leftover destroyed embryos into their products. From the Kidspot story: After a six-year IVF journey to receive miracles Lachlan, 4, and 21-month-old twins Charlotte and William, Belinda and Shaun Stafford didn’... -
Belgium Catholic Psychiatric Institutions to Euthanize
From the indispensable Bioedge story: Nonetheless, in a surprise move this week, the board controlling the institutions of the Brothers of Charity announced that from now on, it will allow euthanasia to take place in their psychiatric hospitals. In a ... -
Mentally Ill Woman Euthanized in Canada
I did a radio interview yesterday warning that I expected Canada to, one day, allow euthanasia as a “treatment” for serious mental illness. Today, I find out it already happened. A court apparently allowed a mentally ill woman to be ... -
Abortion Lobby Doesn't Want Women Informed About Choices
Pro-abortion types claim they are “pro-choice.” But they apparently don’t want women considering abortions to be fully informed about what it is that they are making a choice about, most particularly the nature of the being that is the ... -
Dutch MDs Euthanize One Mentally Ill Patient a Week
Slippery slope, Wesley? What slippery slope? Strict guidelines protect against abuse! Yea, right. Last year, Dutch psychiatrists and general practitioners killed about one mentally ill patient each week. From the NLTimes.NL story: Of the total, 87% of assisted deaths involved ... -
Ezekiel Emanuel Attacks Medical Conscience
One of Obamacare’s major architects, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, has just co-authored (with bioethicist Ronit Y. Stahl) a major attack on medical conscience in the New England Journal of Medicine. His position is that physicians must abandon their own moral ... -
Now Glaciers Granted Legal ‘Personhood’
Environmentalism is going mad and becoming dangerous to human thriving and our metaphysical self perception. Last week, I wrote about rivers being declared “persons.” Now in India, glaciers have been similarly declared to be “living entities.” More specifically, a court ... -
Rivers Given "Rights"
Over at my bi-weekly First Things column I discuss the consequences of granting “rights” to rivers–as has been done in New Zealand and India–and the more broad “nature rights” movement that is gaining steam. From, “Rivers Declared to ... -
Paralyzed Man Moves Arm With Brain Implants
Futuristic medicine is here. A paralyzed man was able to move his own arm using electrodes implanted in his brain and arm. From the Sky News story: Bill Kochevar, 56, was paralysed below his shoulders in a cycling accident eight years ... -
Assisted Suicide Loses in Hawaii
Mass legalization of assisted suicide is not inevitable. Now, after -
Canada Conjoins Euthanasia and Organ Harvesting
It was so predictable I predicted it. Following Belgium and the Netherlands, Canadian MDs have conjoined euthanasia and organ harvesting before it was specifically allowed in Canadian law. From the National Post story: Doctors have already harvested organs from dozens ... -
Assisted Suicide Loses in New Mexico
We keep hearing how legalized assisted suicide is unstoppable. And yet, over the last twenty-five-plus years, it is stopped again and again and again. We also hear that only conservatives oppose legalization, when in fact, many liberals also understand that ... -
What About Ryan's Filibuster Warning?
I am not caught up in the details of the House Obamacare repeal legislation. The sausage factory is operating at full capacity. That seems a return to normalcy to me. But I am wondering why opponents haven’t conceded a ... -
Human Exceptionalism Supported in New York Times
The New York Times publishes articles denying or attacking human exceptionalism so often, that when it publishes a piece supportive of our uniqueness, fairness requires that notice be taken. Author Roger Scruton denies the divine spark argument that supports human ... -
Don't Punish Pain Patients Because of Others' Addiction
Don’t get me wrong: The opioid addiction crisis is a terrible problem. But in trying to deal with that issue, I am worried that we will sacrifice the patients who legitimately need these medications in order to control terrible ... -
Peter Singer Can't Hear the "Music of Humanity"
I have had a bit of reaction to the post I wrote the other day, quoting Peter Singer as admitting he wouldn’t raise a child with Down, and justifying the killing of the developmentally and cognitively disabled because, in ... -
Quebec Moves Toward Euthanasia for Alzheimer's
Our neighbor to the north demonstrates vividly how the logic of euthanasia consciousness spreads like a virus. Once a society generally accepts killing as an acceptable response to human suffering, the killable categories expand exponentially–clearly seen in the Netherlands ... -
Scientists Want to Genetically Engineer Humans
I first became involved deeply in the debates over biotechnology during the great embryonic stem cell debate. During that time, I watched in stunned and appalled amazement as scientists lied to legislators and hyped the imminent likelihood of CURES! CURES! ... -
Bioethicist: Give Self-Cutters Sterile Razors
How off the rails of decency and true compassion is bioethics discourse becoming? Try this. Rather than try to prevent disturbed self-cutters from harming themselves instead give them sterile razors. So says University of Manchester Law School professor of “Social ... -
Left Wingism Overtakes 'March for Science'
The left twists any and every discreet issue and politicizing them into usual culture war agenda items. Now it’s the March for Science. Over at the American Council on Science and Health blog, Alex Berezow (with whom I have ...
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Judge Rules Jahi McMath May Not be Dead
This could be one of the biggest bioethics cases since Terri Schiavo. A judge has ruled that the teenager, declared dead in California, may not be dead. From the East Bay Express story: Jahi McMath, the Oakland teenager whose brain ... -
Ethical Stem Cells Relieve Parkinson's in Monkeys
The advance of ethical stem cell research continues exponentially. Neurons made from induced pluripotent stem cells–which were, in turn, made from skin cells–have relieved Parkinson’s symptoms in monkeys. From the Nature story: Takahashi’s team transformed iPS ... -
India Court Privacy Ruling Corrodes Societal Glue
Courts have usurped legislatures in determining some of the most important issues of public policy in society. The latest example comes from India, in which the Supreme Court declared that privacy is such a profound fundamental right that it would ... -
Dying of Despair
I began my work against assisted suicide in 1993. In the intervening years, I have witnessed a very disturbing change. When I began, the emotional zeitgeist of society focused intensely on preventing suicide. Today, in many cases, the emotional oomph (if ... -
‘Nature's Rights’ Constitutional Amendment Proposed
The California secession movement is active again, gathering signatures for a vote. One group, perhaps knowing that won’t happen, is pushing for changes to the U.S. Constitution, including a new amendment guaranteeing the “Nature’s rights.” From the ... -
Joint Elder Euthanasia in Netherlands
Remember when society considered it a tragedy when old people killed themselves? Now, apparently, it is celebrated as a splendid “death with dignity” choice. From the Telegraph story: An elderly couple died holding hands surrounded by loved ones in a ... -
Canadian MDs Want More $ To Kill
Some Canadian homicide doctors–those that euthanize patients–believe they aren’t paid enough. From the Maclean’s article: All in, a MAID [medical assistance in dying, e.g., lethal injection] provider can claim a maximum of $440. That would be ... -
Is Euthanasia Corrupting Transplant Medical Ethics?
In my very first anti-euthanasia column, published by Newsweek in 1993, I worried that once medicalized killing became accepted, it would soon be joined by “organ harvesting as a plum to society.” “Alarmist!” I was called. “Slippery slope arguer!” It will ... -
The Worst MDs can Become Death Prescribers
The New York Times is on an assisted suicide/euthanasia promotion juggernaut. Recently, it had a magazine-length, front page story swooning story about a euthanasia party in Canada. Today, a major front-page opinion section column by a doctor supporting assisted ... -
Genetic Engineering with ‘Strict Guidelines?’ Ha!
Human genetic engineering is moving forward exponentially and we are still not having any meaningful societal, regulatory, or legislative conversations about whether, how, and to what extent we should permit the human genome to be altered in ways that flow ... -
Another Charlie Gard Case?
Another family in the U.K. is fighting to keep doctors from forcing their sick baby off of life support. From The Mirror story: Charlie Gard supporters are rallying round the family of a seriously ill little boy as his ... -
Shrinks Free to Say Trump Is Crazy
The American Psychoanalytic Association just repealed its so-called “Goldwater Rule,” which forbids mental-health professionals from diagnosing politicians they have not examined. Now, shrinks will be able to opine from afar on MSNBC — and similar clinically professional outlets — about President Trump’... -
Human Genetic Engineering Begins!
Some of the most powerful technologies ever invented — which can literally change human life at the DNA level — are moving forward with very little societal discussion or sufficient regulatory oversight. Technology Review is now reporting an attempt in the US ... -
Pushing Medical Authoritarianism Over Parents
It’s not bad enough that Charlie Gard’s parents have been told by courts that doctors can take their son off of life support without consent, and also, they can’t retain other doctors to take over his care. ... -
Assisted Suicide IS the ‘Harmful Effect’
I know that Alexandra is not implying otherwise, but to say that she hopes that “harmful effects” of the Washigton D.C. law, such as increased suicides — I assume other than of the assisted variety — or coercion will not occur, ... -
Does Darwinism Lead to Infanticide Acceptance?
The evolutionary biologist, Jerry Coyne, writes a blog entitled, “Why Evolution is True.” One would think that by choosing that title, Coyne should restrict his discussions to questions of science that touch on questions and explanations about how and why ... -
Infanticide Advocacy Published by NYT
The New York Times can be counted on to publish columns and articles subversive of the sanctity/equality of human life, traditional morality, and human exceptionalism. The latest example uses the intense public interest generated by the the Charlie Gard ... -
New Hearing for Charlie Gard!
The huge popular pushback against bioethical aggression in the Charlie Gard case — parents told their baby WILL be taken off life support, and NO, they CAN’T obtain another doctor or hospital — seems to be bearing fruit. From the Sky ... -
Dutch Doctors Killed 431 Without Request in 2015
Euthanasia pretends to be about choice, but it ends up being about killing as an answer to human suffering — ask or not. Since first permitted in the 1970s, the Netherlands has always had a problem with doctors killing patients who ... -
Human Exceptionalism: We Understand ‘Significance’
Materialists believe that, in the end, we are only so many carbon molecules, signifying nothing. Hence, most deny human exceptionalism, arguing essentiallty that we are just another species in the forest — when they aren’t castigating us as the enemy ... -
Illinois Compels MDs to Discuss ‘Benefits’ of Abortion
I have predicted that “medical conscience” will become a huge social controversy in the next decade, as culture of death proponents seek to force pro-life and Hippocratic Oath-believing doctors out of medicine by compelling them to be complicit in life-taking ... -
Denver Shrugs at Public Defecation
The rush to validate — or at least shrug off — anti-social behavior continues. In order to protect illegal aliens from deportation — and homeless people from arrest — Denver has reduced penalties for public defecation and urination to the least possible, short of ... -
NY Court Rules Chimps Not Entitled to Rights
This case should have been laughed out of court. Instead, the bid by the radical NonHuman Rights Project received a respectful ruling from a New York appeals court in its attempt to grant writs of habeas corpus to chimpanzees. As ... -
Offered Assisted Suicide in Place of Treatment
The news media usually ignore assisted suicide abuses because it goes against their Brittany Maynard meme of normalizing the lethal act. True to form, most major outlets have–so far–failed to report on this story: A Nevada doctor is ... -
Euthanasia Not About Ending Uncontrollable Pain
The euthanasia movement fear mongers its agenda as a means of preventing an agonizing death in pain that cannot be controlled. It’s all a false pitch. That’s not why it’s actually done. Rather, existential anguish drives people ... -
Assisted Suicide Loses in Maine
We have been told over many years that assisted suicide is unstoppable, an idea for which the time has come. Baloney. Assisted suicide legalization efforts almost always lose. Now, in Maine. From the Portland Press Herald story: House lawmakers rejected ... -
We Are Going Insane
One of CNN’s top anchors just said to a Trump defender, “If he took a dump on his desk, you’d defend him.” We are going insane. -
Protect Medical Conscience
Over at First Things, I have a piece up about the ongoing and accelerating campaign–most recently furthered by Obamacare architect Ezekiel Emanuel–to drive pro-life and orthodox religious believers out of medicine by forcing their participation or complicity in ... -
Canadian Medical Killers Form Trade Association
The Hippocratic Oath reads in part, ” I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” But Canadian death doctors and nurse practitioners who euthanize the sick, disabled, and mentally ill–soon perhaps, also ... -
Another River Basin Granted "Rights"
The “nature rights” movement is on a roll. With three rivers and two glaciers previously been granted legal human-style rights in India and New Zealand, now the Colombia Constitutional Court has joined the anti-human exceptionalism fray. From the Intercontinental Cry ... -
IVF Children More Likely to Get Cancer
There are big bucks to be made in the infertility industry as people desperate to have children spend bounteously for IVF and ancillary procedures. Some worried that we rushed headlong into this field without a full understanding of the possible ... -
RFRA Does Not Apply to State Law
The ACLU suing a Catholic hospital for refusing to permit surgeons to excise healthy organs as a treatment for gender dysphoria is merely the latest legal case broght against a Catholic hospital for following Catholic moral teaching. The attacks on ... -
NYT Publishes Speech Suppression Advocacy
These are dangerous times for free speech in the increasingly less free Western world. In Europe and Canada, one can be fined or jailed for expressing views that those in power find odious or “oppressive.” Here in the USA, we ... -
Canada Push To Allow Mentally Ill Euthanasia
Euthanasia/assisted suicide is NOT about terminal illness. The issue is about normalizing killing as a response to human suffering. Sure, the initial sales pitch would restrict doctor-administered or prescribed death to the dying. But that’s just to get ... -
Pushing Euthanasia with Organ Harvesting
Back in 1993, I warned in my first anti-euthanasia column, published in Newsweek, that once killing became accepted as a solution to human suffering, eventually it would lead to conjoining the death procedure with organ harvesting “as a plum to society.” “... -
Fetal Heartbeat Doesn't Prove ‘Life?’
Good grief. Some on the left keep pretending that we don’t know when human life begins. Sure we do. That’s a scientific question. Embryology textbooks tell us at the completion of fertilization. That means you and I are ... -
Cellular Difficulties for First Three-Parent Baby?
I believe that the push to create “3-parent” babies is unethical human experimentation. I mean, these children will come from a broken and genetically modified egg, then fertilized. This is all radically new and no one knows how these procedures ... -
California's Radical Pro-Abortion Regime
I am continually stunned at the energy and sheer ruthlessness of Planned Parenthood defenders—including the desire to ruin the lives of those who draw blood from the abortionists by pulling back the curtain to reveal the organization’s true ... -
Dogs Detect Cancer from Bandage
This is amazing. Dogs can sniff out cancer from a piece of cloth which had touched the breast of a woman with a tumour, researchers said Friday, announcing the results of an unusual, but promising, diagnostic trial. With just six ... -
Ganges River Declared a Legal Person
New Zealand previously passed legislation granting a river legal personhood. Yes, a river: you know the geological feature by which water flows through a defined channel, usually to the sea. Now, an Indian court has decreed that the Ganges is ... -
Republicans Push Coerced Genetic Testing Bill
“Wellness” and health are becoming spear points wielded by big government and big business to invade our privacy and coerce us into living “healthy” lifestyles. And now it is Republicans leading the privacy invasion. A bill has passed its first ... -
River to Receive Human-Type Rights?
In my The War on Humans, I warned that radical environmentalists wanted to accord human-type “rights” to “nature.” The idea is to prevent development and human exploitation of natural resources. Under these laws, anyone can sue on behalf of “nature,” ... -
Euthanasia Advocates Seek to Stop Gorsuch
U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee wrote a book in 2007 opposing the legalization of assisted suicide. I reviewed that book for First Things, and noted that while he splendidly considered the (then) legal precedents and philosophical questions, (to my dismay) ... -
Bioengineered Human Life Would Not Be "Artificial"
Big news in biotech: Scientists created what appeared to be a mouse embryo using stem cells. From the Telegraph story: Artificial human life could soon be grown from scratch in the lab, after scientists successfully created a mammal embryo using ... -
90,000 Christians Killed a Year?
Christian martyrdom may be the world’s most underreported story. But if a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity is true, we are in the midst of a terrible international pogrom against Christians, with 90,000 reportedly ... -
Peter Singer Thinks Intellectually Disabled Less Valuable than Pigs
In his apologetics for infanticide, Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer has used a baby with Down syndrome as an example of a killable infant based on utilitarian measurements. (He actually supports infanticide because babies–whether disabled or not–are, in his ... -
Leaving California with a Light Heart
After more than 67 years as a Californian–since my birth–I have moved to the Commonwealth of Virginia, following my wife to DC after she obtained a prime journalism gig in the nation’s capital. Once I would have left ... -
NM Assisted Suicide Bill Moves Toward Death on Demand
Assisted suicide pushers are–to put it kindly–disingenuous. For example, they often offer smooth assurances about “safeguards” to protect against abuse. Yet, new legalization schemes often dilute the traditional already-as-thick-as-water limitations in place where lethally prescribing is now legal. ... -
Euthanasia ‘Safeguards’ Soon Seen as ‘Hurdles’
Just a quick post to show you how the slippery slope slip slides away. Canada’s Supreme Court imposed a nationwide regime on the entire country. An obedient Parliament passed enabling legislation, including “safeguards” to protect against abuse. Now, these ... -
Sierra Club Eugenics
Tucker Carlson asked Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, how its support for Planned Parenthood and more abortions was good for the environment. The answer: Well, it helps to address the number of people we have on ...