Wesley J. Smith

A lot can be made of a new Gallop Poll about assisted suicide and euthanasia. When asked if assisted suicide is morally acceptable, 48% say yes and 44% say no. That is very close to the AP poll I posted about the other day.Then Gallop asks a question which seems to me intended to heighten the . . . . Continue Reading »

As promised, here is the Weekly Standard article I co-authored with Rita Marker, which points up the similarities between Jack Kevorkian’s illegal assisted suicide campaign and the legal assisted suicide regimen currently regent in Oregon. Here are a few excerpts: In 1990, when Kevorkian began . . . . Continue Reading »

When I wrote the other day about the Dutch “reality” television show in which a terminally ill woman will interview “contestants” vying to receive her kidney for transplant, I assumed that the donation would be after she had died. Apparently not. According to this story, the . . . . Continue Reading »

USA Today has named Terri Schiavo one of the top 25 people who “moved us” in the last 25 years. Hmmm. I know her family would rather she hadn’t made such an impact, that instead, she were still alive and being cared for in the bosom of their love.It is undeniable though that Terri . . . . Continue Reading »

We often hear that more than 60% of Americans favor assisted suicide. I have never believed it because the polls that count—elections—mostly show narrow disapproval of legalization (except Michigan where an assisted suicide legalization bill lost 71-29% in 1998, hardly narrow, and . . . . Continue Reading »

Methinks A.B. 374, the bill to legalize assisted suicide in California, may be in some trouble. The authors have—sort of—amended the bill to require a three months left to live rather than a six months left to live standard, before a lethal prescription can be written in the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Swiss suicide rate is apparently quite high and a matter of great concern. The Swiss have vowed to fight it, but they have a problem: Opposing “suicide” while legally permitting assisted suicide sends a decidedly mixed message that would seem to make prevention advocacy less . . . . Continue Reading »

The Dutch continue to stun with their fall off a vertical bioethical cliff: In this installment, a television show will soon air in which three ill contestants vie for the right to the kidney of a terminally ill woman. From the story in the UK’s Guardian:In the show, due to be broadcast on . . . . Continue Reading »

I find myself feeling ambivalent about this story: Permission has been granted to therapeutically experiment on trauma victims and people whose hearts suddenly stopped beating, toward the end of improving care in such medical emergencies. In the past, I have opposed using unconscious and dying . . . . Continue Reading »

There are some who claim that there is little connection between Jack Kevorkian and most euthanasia/assisted suicide advocates. Don’t you believe it. Kevorkian merely had the temerity to actually do what most believe should be allowed to be done.As evidence, here are relevant excerpts from a . . . . Continue Reading »