Wesley J. Smith

We hear from some, such as Dr. Sherwin Nuland, that what a doctor does or does not do at the bedside should be determined by the individual practioner’s personal conscience. This usually cuts from the side of permitting acts such as euthanasia—as Nuland asserted in the New England . . . . Continue Reading »

Now that Big Biotech has won elections in CA and MO, and the Bush funding policy is on the ropes, Big Biotech and their boosters in the media are changing their stories. Whereas before, it was about direct CURES! CURES! CURES!, now it is about basic research, which is touted as just as . . . . Continue Reading »

This video produced by my pals at the Center for Bioethics and Culture is a somber warning against harvesting women so that their eggs can be used in human cloning research. Egg donation can lead to serious infections, loss of fecundity, and even death. Regardless of whether one supports or opposes . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a book review of The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia posted on today’s First Things blog. The book is dry, but very good in its discussion of the legal issues, and not bad in explaining philosophical perspectives. I was disappointed, however, that the author Neil M. Gorsuch . . . . Continue Reading »

With the intrepid help of the Discovery Institute, I have just begun a new one minute radio commentary called BioScience Views, that is beginning to get around. We haven’t created a dedicated Web page for it yet, but if you hit this link, you can find them.Here are a couple of . . . . Continue Reading »

This terrible case of a girl giving birth and stabbing her baby to death raises a very important point. Some, like Princeton’s Peter Singer, believe that a newborn is not a person and so infanticide should not be a crime. A regular commenter here at Secondhand Smoke recently stated that there . . . . Continue Reading »

The other day, the Sacramento Bee editorialized in favor of assisted suicide. Now, it runs this story about how state investigators are inadequately auditing nursing homes and busting unsafe operators. Here’s the story:The California Department of Health Services is underestimating the . . . . Continue Reading »

So, now researchers believe they can make sperm from a woman’s bone marrow stem cells. And in this way, a woman may one day father a child. From the story in the Independent: Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow tissue . . . . Continue Reading »

This is slightly off point, but it is funny. So, I am exercising “Blogger’s Priviledge” and posting it for SHSers to enjoy. Have a good . . . . Continue Reading »

Stock prices for embryonic stem cell research companies took a hit when the U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill to overturn President Bush’s stem cell funding policy by a veto proof margin. Worcester, MA’s, Advanced Cell Technology—which opened an office in California to try and . . . . Continue Reading »