Wesley J. Smith

I have long thought that bioethics is something of a pseudo field. Not that the matters with which it grapples are not important.  They are crucial.  And not that its thinkers are not morally serious—they are. But it has always seemed to me that bioethics lacks focus, e.g., that . . . . Continue Reading »

Animal rights activists would never stop screaming if the actions they take were directed against them.  They demand the right to free speech—which some activists expand beyond recognition to include threats, intimidation, and even bombings—but have little problem with denying it to . . . . Continue Reading »

The warning sirens are blaring, but will we listen?  Centralized health care planning doesn’t work.  In the UK, the NHS hospitals have an abysmal record on something as basic as hygiene. From the story:A quarter of health trusts failed to meet standards over hospital infections while . . . . Continue Reading »

This is very alarming.  A survey—published in the New England Journal of Medicine!, not a conservative blog site—found that huge numbers of doctors worry they will be forced—or will want—to leave medicine if Obamacare passes.  From the story:Health Reform and . . . . Continue Reading »

Regular readers of SHS will recall that I was honored to be asked by the United Nations International School to lecture at a two day bioethics conference it held for about 700 students from all around the world.  My theme was the importance of intrinsic human dignity in bioethics.Part of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Good grief what next?  I posted previously that two courts found no connection between autism and childhood vaccines. But integrity requires that I now post  about the latest twist in that ongoing controversy: One of the premier scientists involved in finding no link is now immersed in a . . . . Continue Reading »

For years, we heard that if only the Bush funding restrictions were removed, ESCR would quickly demonstrate its promise of curing the multitudes.  Well, it’s been a year since the Bush executive order was revoked.  But are “the scientists” happy?  Not on a bet. From . . . . Continue Reading »

The Washington Posthas a story about a pilot program to identify donatable organs from the cadvers of people who die in emergency rooms. From the story:Using a $321,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, the emergency departments at the University of Pittsburgh Medical . . . . Continue Reading »

I guess if our government’s Democratic leaders don’t get their way on Obamacare, they would just as soon tear the country apart.  Having lost the political debate over Obamacare, and apparently unable to muster sufficient votes in the House to pass the Senate version of the bill as . . . . Continue Reading »

The real danger to children comes from messages like the one reproduced to the left, since it could scare parents out of providing their children important—indeed, potentially life saving—vaccines. This is particularly true now that the unlikely charge against vaccines as causing autism . . . . Continue Reading »