Wesley J. Smith

This may seem counter intuitive, but a lawsuit filed in California against Health Net Insurance, for allegedly denying coverage for life-saving medical treatment, illustrates the danger of single payer health coverage.  First, the story from the L.A. County Medical Association Press . . . . Continue Reading »

I couldn’t believe my eyes: But there it was, right on the front page of the New York Times: “A First: Organs Tailor-Made With Body’s Own Cells.”The story goes into great detail describing an Iceland research success in which a dying man’s trachea was fabricated . . . . Continue Reading »

The abortion license, ironically, helped lead directly to a view that there is a fundamental right to have children.  And to be sure, people should not be forced to be sterilized, or to take birth control, or have abortions.  Hello People’s Republic of China!But those are . . . . Continue Reading »

John Lennon asked us to “imagine “ there is no religion, no countries, indeed, no beliefs. Do that and the world could “live as one.” It was all pap, but we Boomers ate it up because we thought that would do away with right and wrong, meaning by definition we could define . . . . Continue Reading »

In all the disparaging of preventive medical screenings we have seen recently, the efficacy of colonoscopies remains (mostly) unchallenged. But my dad died of colon cancer—partly because of utter negligence by the Veteran’s Administration in doing proper testing when he presented . . . . Continue Reading »

We have discussed here repeatedly various religious/secular controversies that require the balancing of interests.  We have also repeatedly discussed why I believe—and many commenters don’t—that infant circumcision should be protected as a religious right. And . . . . Continue Reading »

Last year, I wrote here about how “Suicide Prevention Day” was pretty much invisible. Well, can any of you guess which date was National Suicide Prevention Day for 2012?  (Cue the Jeopardy music.) Time’s up: September 10: Come and gone without making a ripple, with mostly blog . . . . Continue Reading »

The NHS crisis keeps getting worse. Now, because doctors don’t want to work “anti social hours” and due to work regulations, some hospitals are in danger of imploding during weekends.  From the Telegraph story:Patients’ lives are at risk in NHS hospital wards that are . . . . Continue Reading »

For years we were pounded with the importance of routine screening to catch cancer and other serious diseases early when they are most treatable. Now, we are often being told not to screen because of the risk of false positives.  Latest example has the experts recommending against routine . . . . Continue Reading »

The World Health Organization has published guidelines to help prevent suicide.  From the WHO:Effective interventions Strategies involving restriction of access to common methods of suicide, such as firearms or toxic substances like pesticides, have proved to be effective in reducing suicide . . . . Continue Reading »