Wesley J. Smith

A little while back I wrote a piece for National Review Online called “Veganism is Murder.” The thesis of the piece was that while many animal rights activists claim that “meat is murder,” vegans also live off the deaths of animals due to the perhaps billions of mice, snakes, . . . . Continue Reading »

Who says that the value of human life is on the wane? In Scotland, a man murdered his wife, and because he has dementia, the judge has banned him from pubs rather than sending him to jail. From the story:Lord Matthews told the defendant: “You were found guilty of the culpable homicide of your . . . . Continue Reading »

This is the future that Futile Care theorists hold for us. If you sign an advance medical directive granting a proxy the right to make your health decisions on your behalf in the event of incapacity—and that proxy wants life support ceased—that decision is sacrosanct, and woe betide the . . . . Continue Reading »

As if it were really needed, here is further proof that animal research is absolutely necessary to the alleviation of human suffering and finding treatments for terrible afflictions: Scientsts have been able to recreate Alzheimer’s disease in mouse models which will permit the affliction to be . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been researching the purported genetic near-identity between humans and chimps— asserted as the “scientific” basis for the Great Ape Project—and found (unsurprisingly) that the entire advocacy line that “humans and chimps share 98% of our genes” is plain . . . . Continue Reading »

The utilitarian bioethicists that exert so much control over NHS medical ethics are tightening the noose around the throats of UK patients once again—this time urging that the lives of expensive patients not be extended. From the story:Patients cannot rely on the NHS to save their lives if the . . . . Continue Reading »

This is the story of a marriage and the strength of human love—the kind of a happy tale that might never happen in a euthanasia culture. From the story:The bride wore an ivory gown, the groom wore a black tux with an ascot to cover the trachea tube that assists his breathing. Joan’s son . . . . Continue Reading »

Remember when the above headline was breathlessly expected to come from human cloning and to serve as a repudiation of the Bush stem cell funding policy? This breakthrough, however, came about with induced pluripotent stem cells created from patient skin cells and bone marrow. From the story:Harvard . . . . Continue Reading »

I have become so sick and tired of the baloney that swirls around assisted suicide advocacy like gruel in a blender. Assisted suicide is not really about the rare case when nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering—which has not been the case yet in any legalized jurisdiction from the . . . . Continue Reading »

I think the stories of patients being refused life-extending chemotherapy by Oregon’s Medicaid—but offered assisted suicide instead—will materially impact the I-1000 legalization effort in Washington. First, this kind of heartlessness was predicted by opponents. Second, the old . . . . Continue Reading »