Wesley J. Smith

I wrote earlier this year about the Kennedy/Brownback bill, intended to prevent parents from being pressured into (or against) eugenic abortion when a gestating baby is found to have a condition such as Down syndrome, dwarfism, or cystic fibrosis. I am happy to report that it was signed into law, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Bush embryonic stem cell funding limitations will be histoire as of January 20, 2009. But the advances in ethical stem cell research, that I believe his policy did much to promote, will not abate. Now, umbilical cord blood stem cells have been used to create rudimentary heart valves. From the . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a tragic case ongoing in Washington DC that involves the definition of death and religious belief. A 12-year-old boy, known publicly as M.B., has been declared dead by neurological criteria (popularly known as brain dead). The doctors want to terminate the medical machinery that is keeping . . . . Continue Reading »

After Washington voters passed I-1000 legalizing Oregon-style assisted suicide, First Things asked me to weigh in with some analysis. I look at the matter from two angles. The first is political. I noted that the assisted suicide movement had been essentially moribund since the passage of . . . . Continue Reading »

Between 1994 and last Tuesday, the assisted-suicide movement in this country was moribund. After Oregon passed Measure 16 (the Death with Dignity Act) in 1994 and saw it go into effect in 1997—despite widespread expectations, myriad state legislative efforts, and two voter referenda (Michigan . . . . Continue Reading »

Put this post in the Total Conjecture File. A story about the decline in male fertility and increasing birth defects among male babies got me to wondering: Is it possible that human biological evolution can be impacted by the changes in perception caused by radically evolving cultural trends? From . . . . Continue Reading »

We get stories like this from time-to-time: There was Washoe the chimp who could supposedly converse intelligently through sign language that turned out to be training and subtle prompts. And now, a researcher has written a book about her claims that a parrot named Alex the parrot had the . . . . Continue Reading »

Biologist/atheist polemicist Richard Dawkins, whose WEB site is self-described as “a clear thinking oasis,” seems to be having trouble in that department of late. First, in an interview with Ben Stein in Expelled, he claimed that it is an “intriguing possibility” that life on . . . . Continue Reading »

We have an organ shortage that desperately needs ameliorating. With such pressing needs, some wish to bend or even break important ethical rules by, for example, obliterating the dead donor rule so that people can be killed for their organs.We can’t go down that road, but if it works, we can . . . . Continue Reading »

Mary Pilcher Cook is a terrific politician who is right as a good rain on the issues we cover here at SHS. I have just heard from Mary and learned that she won her seat to the Kansas Senate by a comfortable 10% margin. I am thrilled. She is the kind of young leader who stands on principle that this . . . . Continue Reading »