Wesley J. Smith

The other day I posted about how a lawyer for one of the Final Exit Network defendants said that hospice is just assisted suicide in slow motion. This is dangerous demagoguery that could convince people not to seek the benefits that hospice can provide. The National Hospice and Palliative Care . . . . Continue Reading »

The Hastings Center published an article in its journal IRB: Ethics and Human Research (“Including Persons with Alzheimer Disease in Research on Comorbid Conditions,” 31, no. 1 (2009): 1-6) that I found both alarming and a sign of the increased desire among some in the bioethics and . . . . Continue Reading »

Remember when we were told that IVF, coupled with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), would only be used to prevent serious genetic health maladies from being passed to the next generation? That was never true, of course. The intent was to get people to accept the principle that parents should . . . . Continue Reading »

President Obama still hasn’t rescinded the Bush stem cell policy. He will, but it may matter a lot less than people once thought. The IPSC advances continue, opening the door possibly for a way forward in biotechnology that all Americans can support. And, it is reported in the Washington Post! . . . . Continue Reading »

I knew the assisted suicide crowd would try to make the four defendants in the assisted suicide of a man who had been treated successfully of cancer, but was undergoing difficult reconstruction surgery and needed a hip replacement, into some kind of civil rights-type heroes. Toward this end, some . . . . Continue Reading »

John Celmer, the man whose death is the subject of the Final Exit Network assisted suicide criminal charges, was not terminally ill. Indeed, he had apparently beaten his cancer. From the story: John Celmer was making what his doctor considered “remarkable progress” last spring after two . . . . Continue Reading »

Assisted suicide advocates pretend that they support hospice, but their work undermines the entire concept, or at least, twists it into something that would be unrecognizable by its creator, Dame Cecily Saunders. But now a lawyer named Michael Kaminkow, who is defending two of the Final Exit Network . . . . Continue Reading »

There she goes again—meaning Compassion (Hemlock Society) and Choices head Barbara Coombs Lee—pushing the baloney that assisted suicide is only about preventing unalieviable suffering for the terminally ill. Worse, she engages in irresponsible demogoguery about proper care of dying . . . . Continue Reading »

It was a given that the Obama Administration would attack the “Bush Conscience Clause.” And that process has begun. But it may a revision rather than a rescission, and indeed, perhaps one I could support. From the story:The administration took the step because the regulation was so . . . . Continue Reading »

I was recently asked to assume more responsibilities for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. I agreed and am now its associate director. This new gig will include speaking, writing, and media on the specific topic of euthanasia/assisted suicide. It will not affect nor . . . . Continue Reading »