Wesley J. Smith

This Bloomberg report about how Harvard and California’s Geron Corporation plan to try to accomplish what Woo-suk Hwang lied about doing: human cloning and extraction of embryonic stem cells. No surprise there. But what is refreshing is that the story reports accurately that human cloning . . . . Continue Reading »

Russian doctors have been arrested for being part of a plot to take patients’ organs for sale on the black market. This is one small piece in a larger puzzle involving organ sales and exploitation of poor and sick people around the world. Losing the concept of the intrinsic moral value of . . . . Continue Reading »

This is a good story on the potential benefits of umbilical cord blood stem cells. Check it . . . . Continue Reading »

This column goes where the entire “Futile Care Theory” (aka medical futility) movement wants to take us. If you don’t want to receive life-sustaining treatment, you should have the absolute right to refuse. If you do want it, you may or may not get your way depending on whether the . . . . Continue Reading »

Three UK animal rights terrorists have admitted to robbing a grave to force a farm family to quit raising guinea pigs for science. This despicable act was the culmination of a campaign of intimidation, threats, false accusations, such as of pedophilia, that did finally force the family to stop . . . . Continue Reading »

I have heard from some people who have complained that they can’t comment here at Secondhand Smoke. That is because to do so, one needs to be a registered user of Blogger. I have checked to see if there is a way around that requirement and have been told that to permit non Blogger users to . . . . Continue Reading »

The release of the second update of my book Forced Exit (originally published in 1997 and updated in 2003))has been delayed due to the publisher, Encounter Books, moving from San Francisco to New York. The new edition will be a paper back and readers of the original will find it somewhat streamlined . . . . Continue Reading »

The national board of LULAC, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, has unanimously opposed assisted suicide in general and California’s AB 651 in specific. The MSM continue to attempt to portray opposition to assisted suicide as a product of religious conservatism. This . . . . Continue Reading »

Belgium only legalized euthanasia a few years ago and it is already catching up with the Netherlands’ fall off the vertical moral cliff. One of the ruling parties is calling for permitting euthanasia to minors under 18 and for parents to permit the mercy killing of their children. It took the . . . . Continue Reading »

You’ve read me, now hear me give a speech, which I called “Bioethics: Creating a Disposable Caste?” It was presented in Washington DC at the Discovery Institute Washington DC headquarters on 2/22/06. It is an MP3 format . . . . Continue Reading »