Wesley J. Smith

The State of Missouri has decided, in its lack of wisdom, to make feeding tubes “optional” under Medicaid for poor people. This is class warfare in the truest sense of the term. If someone needs a feeding tube to survive, and if they can’t afford to pay for the services, refusing . . . . Continue Reading »

Another human trial for adult stem cells, this time derived from muscles, after successful animal studies. Hopefully, this will lead to an effective treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Also of note, it is stated in this report that the stem cells are ‘pluripotent,’ that is able to . . . . Continue Reading »

Laws against bestiality shouldn’t be controversial. But in Washington State, some oppose making it against the law to have sex with animals. Meanwhile, promoters of the legislation are failing to make the most important argument of all: Sex with animals unacceptably subverts standards of basic . . . . Continue Reading »

It seems that much progress is being made on creating an artificial womb. This could be a very good thing, of course, as it could permit women to save endangered pregnancies. But it could also be the vehicle carrying biotechnologists from researching on cloned human embryos in Petri dishes into . . . . Continue Reading »

It is growing increasingly hard for those who insist that therapeutic cloning is the ticket to treat human maladies to continue with that claim with a straight face. Here is an apparent successful treatment of heart disease using the patient’s own bone marrow stem cells. Imagine, one’s . . . . Continue Reading »

The Edinburgh Zoo has a new enclosure to house polar bears. But the Animal Liberation Front (AFL) has promised to attack the zoo and shut it down in the same fashion with which liberationists attacked a UK guinea pig farm and coerced its closing. That included threats of violence, repeated . . . . Continue Reading »

This extended piece from the New York Times Magazine is well worth the time it takes to read it. Jeffrey Rosen is not only fair (a real change of pace for the NYT), but he is right about some of the issues likely to be the source of bitter litigation in the future, ranging from the right to . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the people hired to be exhibited in the London Zoo posted a note on Secondhand Smoke. She is not having fun and thinks putting people in zoos is a stupid idea. Yes, that’s a polite way to put it. She can use e-mail so perhaps we could say that she isn’t “just an . . . . Continue Reading »

This case is what the Leslie Burke verdict has wrought. Burke more or less won the right to life-sustaining care for the conscious and communicative in the UK. But the unconscious and uncommunicative were left high and dry by the decision, allowing doctors to decide whether they live or die.The . . . . Continue Reading »

Nigel Cameron is a friend of mine. He is erudite, intelligent, and has a great sense of humor. He is also right in this . . . . Continue Reading »