Wesley J. Smith

As promised, I have a more extended piece up at the Weekly Standard Website demonstrating that the case for granting equal rights to chimpanzees with humans is not justified scientifically. First, I describe the ideological agenda behind the effort to reduce humans to the status of apes. From my . . . . Continue Reading »

Everyone knows that dogs did not evolve, they were (and are still, technically) wolves that were intelligently designed by us.The tight bond between humans and our best friends, and more particularly their exposure to our love and our genetic and behavioral manipulation has created special traits . . . . Continue Reading »

Pro assisted suicide advocates are expert spin artists who specialize in ignoring the forest for the trees. But this bit of cow manure is so obviously false that if the media weren’t generally totally in the tank, the campaign would become a laughing stock. From “The Oregon . . . . Continue Reading »

This shouldn’t be a surprise because scientists have worried about it all along, but ES cells injected in mice clearly stimulated the kind of immune rejection seen with transplanted organs. From the Scientific American story:The much-ballyhooed human embryonic stem cell apparently may share a . . . . Continue Reading »

An interesting ESCR success was published in the journal Blood. ES cells were morphed into blood, offering the potential of greatly easing blood shortages and making transfusions safer for patients. From the story: In the new study, researchers were able to make as many as 100 billion red blood . . . . Continue Reading »

The stem cell issue sure didn’t turn out to be as potent—or as important—as people expected this time last year. With the IPSC breakthrough, President Bush’s funding limitations ceased to be a cutting edge issue in the presidential campaign. That won’t matter to Senator . . . . Continue Reading »

This is a new angle on the right of patients to demand treatment and when doctors can say no. This time it involves a religious objection to providing artificial insemination for a lesbian.The doctor believed it was immoral to help a homosexual get pregnant and refused to participate, but referred . . . . Continue Reading »

Senator Barack Obama said Saturday night that the time in which human rights should apply are “above my pay grade.” When do you think human rights apply? ( . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week I posted two criticisms of the NEJM article advocating the dismantling of the dead donor rule (here and here) that requires death before the taking of vital organs. I got some backstage blowback that I painted with too broad a brush about the kind of support such proposals have within . . . . Continue Reading »

Oh, oh. A-list movie star Gwyneth Paltrow has endorsed a clothing company that uses animal skin in some of its products, and predictably, the animal rights ideologues are coming unglued. From the story: The Hollywood star has been signed up by Italian designer Tod’s and is pictured draped in . . . . Continue Reading »