Wesley J. Smith

How can anyone trust anything written today about science? In an earlier SHS post, I touched on how a pair of new studies—we were told by the Washington Post—demonstrated that routine prostate screening for cancer isn’t worth doing. The point of that post was not so much to focus . . . . Continue Reading »

I never cease to be amazed at the sense of superiority that drips from the pores of some people who work in the sciences. I find this quite irritating, which was brought to a head for me this morning when I read a story about prostate cancer screening.For years, we have been told repeatedly and . . . . Continue Reading »

The NHS disarray continues. In the scheme of things—with people in the UK unable to get good pain control and hospitals having receptionists examine patients—this is small. But it is symbolic of what happens in socialized systems. From the story:The Health Service has paid out more than . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a piece in today’s Sacramento Bee rounding out my critique of the Obama ESCR policy and his rescission of the Bush executive order requiring the Feds to fund alternative sources for funding of pluripotent stem cells. Some of this will be familiar to SHSers, but I think the points I make . . . . Continue Reading »

I wasn’t going to run with this because bioethicist Jacob M. Appel seems to be following the same business model to career success as Julian Savulescu and others: stake out the most wild and radical positions conceivable and you are sure to get attention—and perhaps big speaking . . . . Continue Reading »

I wasn’t going to run with this because bioethicist Jacob M. Appel seems to be following the same business model to career success as Julian Savulescu and others: stake out the most wild and radical positions conceivable and you are sure to get attention—and perhaps big speaking . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been very unhappy about the lurid headlines in the New York Post and elsewhere about the gravely injured Natasha Richardson being “brain dead.” That is not only insensitive to her devastated family, but the term is thrown around all too loosely.Brain death is a popular term for . . . . Continue Reading »

The CIRM, which doles out $300 million of borrowed money on Californians’ credit card each year, has been a disaster from the start. We have seen mismanagement, conflicts of interest, hundreds of millions paid to buy the most expensive buildings designed by the most costly architects, etc., . . . . Continue Reading »

The Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide will be held near Dulles Airport on May 29-30. I’ll be there (although I don’t like the photo in the ad), also Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Rita Marker, head of the International Task Force . . . . Continue Reading »

The collapse of the NHS is a horror to behold. Now, stories are coming out of what can only be described as appalling conditions in one hospital. From the story:The full extent of the horrific conditions at an NHS hospital where hundreds may have died because of ‘appalling’ care was laid . . . . Continue Reading »