Wesley J. Smith

I will be doing the Tony Snow radio program tomorrow during the 11 o’clock hour (EST) and we will be talking stem cells. I have no doubt that Senator Frist will come up, so I looked up an old column of mine from 2001 about the “Frist Principles,” which the senator suggested serve . . . . Continue Reading »

I have now read the Leslie Burke decision. Rather than being a loss, as depicted in much media, it was really a substantial victory—albeit one that continues to leave out people with profound cognitive impairments. Here is how the current issue of the Weekly Standard has described . . . . Continue Reading »

In his fifth installment in Slate, Will Saletan warns that artificial wombs are coming in which cloned fetuses could be gestated without implantation in human uteruses. Moreover, he notes, the law is not keeping pace with the advance of the science nor are our leaders apparently cognizant of the . . . . Continue Reading »

I am not in the least surprised by Senator Frist’s position on overturning the President’s policy on embryonic stem cell research. Four years ago he stated he favored federal funding for ESCR on condition that only leftover embryos from IVF treatments be used to derive the stem cell . . . . Continue Reading »

I received a call today from London telling me that Leslie Burke lost his case to require that he receive food and water through a tube should he become unable to swallow. I am striving to obtain the decision now. However, news reports appear to indicate that as long as a patient is competent and . . . . Continue Reading »

In Will Saletan’s fourth installment in Slate, he demonstrates further how embryonic stem cell research is not going to remain in the Petri dish. Now, some apparently have decided to draw the line that cannot be crossed (yea, right) at the transition point from embryo to fetus, meaning 8 weeks . . . . Continue Reading »

In the third of his five part series on the cloning and embryonic stem cell controversies in Slate, Will Saletan describes how scientific definitions and moral boundaries are steadily being, shall we say, stretched, to justify permitting biotech researchers to undertake certain areas of research . . . . Continue Reading »

Members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which threatens, intimidates, vandalizes property, and terrorizes executives and employees of the research lab and of companies that do business with them (and their families), are facing law enforcement action and civil suits, as discussed in this . . . . Continue Reading »

I had a wonderful lunch yesterday with Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, during their brief visit to N. California. They appeared well and healthy, while of course, still grieving Terri. They are planning to move forward from here in a very productive manner in the hope of . . . . Continue Reading »

For the last year I have been jumping up and down and hollering that therapeutic cloning isn’t really about embryonic stem cells. Rather, once the research is finished in the Petri dish, it will be moving to cloned fetal farming for organ harvesting and use in drug testing. Thus, New Jersey . . . . Continue Reading »