Wesley J. Smith

The Eureka Journal reported that the California Association of Physicians Groups supports the assisted suicide legalization bill A.B. 374. As I noted here at the time, that organization is a lobbying group representing the business and political interests of group physician practices, that is, it is . . . . Continue Reading »

I can disagree with people about political, social, and moral issues and still respect them. But when they resort to the kind of deceptions that permeate S. 812, the Feinstein/Hatch bill to legalize human cloning and pay women to procure eggs for use in research—which pretends to ban human . . . . Continue Reading »

This is an awful story: A man needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life, and the only suitable donor is his sister. But she won’t do it. Now, he will almost surely die.The law can’t force anyone to be altruistic, of course. It would be wrong to take her bone marrow by force. But . . . . Continue Reading »

I think that the hue and cry against non heart beating cadaver donor protocols—what I have called “heart death”— is misguided. And it reflects a misconception about the concept of “brain death,” a popular term for death by neurological criteria—which does . . . . Continue Reading »

Legislation soon to be introduced in New Jersey would require HIV testing for all mothers and babies. Good. AIDS has been treated as a political disease rather than an urgent matter of public health for far too long.Back in 2001, I wrote “Privacy that Kills” in the Weekly Standard about . . . . Continue Reading »

This is one medical endorsement that I welcome for assisted suicide because it reflects an important truth about the whole movement: It is about money and “treating” the most expensive patients with a lethal overdose. Talk about cost containment!Lest you doubt it, the California . . . . Continue Reading »

I have read the bill several times now. Funny thing: Even though the title of the bill is “The Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Protection Act of 2007,” the bill never even mentions stem cell research except in the title. The bill legalizes human cloning and paying women to procure eggs . . . . Continue Reading »

A major reason that assisted suicide has not moved beyond Oregon in this country is that the Democratic Party remains divided about the issue—despite some of its more left leaning members seeking to transform the issue into a Democratic Agenda item. Proof is in the inability of Democrats Patty . . . . Continue Reading »

I just went to Senators Orin Hatch and Dianne Feinstein’s Web sites to read their press releases on the introduction of S. 812, a bill that would legalize human cloning and authorize researchers to pay women to undergo egg procurement. Here, in part, is what both releases state: The Human . . . . Continue Reading »

In this edition of Brave New Bioethics, I examine the abdication of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, which has switched its position on legalizing assisted suicide to “studied neutrality.” I explain how and why this abandons dying patients and abdicates its . . . . Continue Reading »