Wesley J. Smith

Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s brother, has commented on a phenomenon I have also noticed: The propensity of the media to continually distinguish Terri’s case from other examples when purportedly unconscious people awaken, or dehydrations are stopped because the patient is found to be . . . . Continue Reading »

The Seattle Times has a hopeful story about a patient who couldn’t find a compatible bone marrow donor, being effectively treated for leukemia by umbilical cord blood stem cells. UCB stem cells are much easier to match than bone marrow, but for adults there has always been a problem:But adults . . . . Continue Reading »

I do not believe for a second that in the long term, embryonic stem cell research will be limited to early pre-implantation embryos destroyed in Petri dishes. Indeed, as I have repeatedly noted, New Jersey has already legalized human cloned fetal farming, only requiring that cloned fetuses be . . . . Continue Reading »

This story makes the Naderite in me itch: The actual cloner of Dolly the sheep, Keith Campbell—Ian Wilmut supervised rather than doing the hands on work—is advocating that farmers raise cloned animals rather than those created sexually, as a way of bringing stronger and better animal . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a historical exhibit about eugenics at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. From the column by Rick Martinez, in The News and Observer, it seems the curators did a fine job. Here are few excerpts from Martinez’s reaction:EUGENICS WAS SOLD AS THE SCIENCE of improving the . . . . Continue Reading »

I received a sad e-mail today that Tom Marzen, Chief Counsel for the National Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled, has died of lung cancer. Tom was a tireless advocate for the equal humanity and human rights of people with serious cognitive or developmental disabilities. By the time I . . . . Continue Reading »

Philip Nitschke, the “Down Under Kevorkian,” is running for political office (again). Apparently, like his American soul cousin, he can’t get enough publicity. Let’s see what his plank would be: Oh, yes: Suicide pills available for sale in super markets; assisted suicide for . . . . Continue Reading »

Doctors and a San Luis Obispo hospital are being accused in a lawsuit of mistreating Reuben Navarro, a disabled dying patient toward the end that he would die sooner rather than later and that his organs could then be be procured. (Click here for PDF of Complaint.) Based on what has either been . . . . Continue Reading »

Here is an interesting—and predictable—turn of events: Two nurses are being investigated by law enforcement for engaging in assisted suicide, although the facts look more like a euthanasia. From the story:Two Portland-area nurses gave [cancer patient Wendy Melcher] massive amounts of . . . . Continue Reading »

Get this story out of Euthanasia Land—a.k.a. the Netherlands: A physician has lost his medical license for attempting to treat his dying cancer patient with an alternative treatment. I am not for quackery, of course, and the physician may well deserve the harsh punishment. But this extreme . . . . Continue Reading »