Wesley J. Smith

President Obama’s problem in the health care debate is that he is losing the battle of the sound bite.  What do I mean?  In my experience, for a soundbite to, well, bite, it has to capture and symbolize a more complex and detailed cultural value or perceived truth in a . . . . Continue Reading »

Surrogates is apparently about a world in which people live their lives virtually through robots, sort of a 3-D Second Life.  But then people start to be killed.Hmm. If this movie is any good, it should provoke some interesting conversations about the futility and dangers of the utopian . . . . Continue Reading »

I have long suspected the bioethics movement wishes to have decisional power over public policy.  Now, over at the Hastings Center Website, comes the suggestion that bioethicists should—perhaps (overt advocacy in the field is always couched)—be given more power.  From the . . . . Continue Reading »

Harvard Professor and former Reagan economic adviser Martin Feldstein writes today in the Wall Street Journal that Obamacare is “all about rationing. From the column:The president has emphasized the importance of limiting services to “health care that works.” To identify such care, . . . . Continue Reading »

I have never understood the big fuss over circumcision. Some compare it to female genital mutilation.  But that’s completely wrong because unlike circumcision, it is meant to prevent women from experiencing sexual pleasure and is implemented as a method of control. Circumcision is a . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday, I noted that having former Senator Tom Daschle close to the White House’s health care reform effort was no way to assuage wary voters about rationing.  Today, the NYT has a front page story on his influence on the issue both at the White House and in Congress.  Is SHS on . . . . Continue Reading »

The Feds are apparently planning a mass inoculation drive to vaccinate people against the Swine Flu. From the story:Government health officials are mobilizing to launch a massive swine flu vaccination campaign this fall that is unprecedented in its scope — and in the potential for . . . . Continue Reading »

Not a good way to fight the “death panel” charge: A column in the Wall Street Journal discloses that the Obama Administration has quietly reinstated an end of life counseling pamphlet that the Bush Administration had stopped distributing. Apparently it pushes voluntary plug . . . . Continue Reading »

Former Senator Tom Daschle was supposed to be our Secretary of Health and Human Services.  But then, it turned out he had not paid all his taxes, and so he remains a private citizen, or better stated, an influential private citizen who still has President Obama’s ear on health care.  . . . . Continue Reading »

Popular support for Obamacare is collapsing, due in part to fears that the House Bill’s end-of-life counseling provision for Medicare patients could become a means of pushing seniors into voluntary rationing, that is, into refusing life-sustaining treatment toward the end of saving . . . . Continue Reading »