Wesley J. Smith

Ben Stein, who I met at a dinner and spoke with about the problems emerging in bioethics, contacted me later to share the terrible experience his family had while his father, the economist Herb Stein, was dying. “They treated him like inventory,” Stein wrote me in a turn of phrase I will . . . . Continue Reading »

Harvard University and Children’s Hospital Boston are collaborating together to begin experiments in human cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer). Their purpose is to try and obtain patient specific embryonic stem cells—a feat claimed to have been done by Woo-suk Hwang in South Korea, . . . . Continue Reading »

A research team from Columbia University has identified criteria for determining whether an embryo has died. I was aware this work was being pursued. When I was presenting at a stem cell symposium in Rome last year, Drs. Donald Landry and Howard Zucker discussed this issue, and I was impressed with . . . . Continue Reading »

As promised, here is Will Saletan’s slant on the Stanford transhumanist conference. My article is written too, although I don’t yet know when it will appear. This is my favorite paragraph from Saletan’s recounting, which pretty well nails the scene:“Remember those kids who . . . . Continue Reading »

The man who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep—he didn’t do the actual cloning—has come out in favor of reproductive cloning for therapeutic purposes. That is, he would like to use cloning and genetic engineering to eradicate serious inherited disease. Wilmut has always been . . . . Continue Reading »

It appears that wealthy people who need organ transplants are able to be placed on the waiting list for several organ programs at once. Such gaming undermines a system that is supposed to be based strictly on triage principles. (Hat tip Secondhand Smoke reader “Deep . . . . Continue Reading »

This commentary, by Donald J. Boudreaux, chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University, suggests setting up a market in human organs for transplantation. To promote his proposal, Boudreaux applies a false reductionism to the reasons for opposing organ markets, writing: . . . . Continue Reading »

A Jealous God: Science’s Crusade Against Religion by Pamela Winnick. Nelson Current. 368 pp. $25.99. Is science really at war with religion? Pamela Winnick’s answer is a firm and worried yes. And in A Jealous God she demonstrates that this war threatens not only religion but science as . . . . Continue Reading »

Ronald Cranford, the neurologist and bioethicist who made something of a career testifying on behalf of dehydrating the cognitively disabled, has died. He had kidney cancer, and I assume that this was the cause of his death.I disagreed vehemently with Dr. Cranford. I saw him testify in the Robert . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a book review of A Jealous God in the current edition of First Things. AJG askes whether science is at war with religion. Actually, I report, the author makes a compelling case that the ideology of scientism is at war with orthodox religion because the latter supports and defends the . . . . Continue Reading »