Wesley J. Smith

Each month I edit an online newsletter through the auspices of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.  The December issue is now out.  Here’s my introductory letter:The Human Exceptionalist - December 2011The morality of the 21st century will depend on how we . . . . Continue Reading »

If assisted suicide advocates get their way, Canada will have suicide clinics in major cities the way it has Tim Horton coffee houses.  An amicus brief in the British (the fix is in) Columbia lawsuit to create a right to be made dead, looks to Switzerland as the model.  From the Globe and . . . . Continue Reading »

This is unbelievable—except it isn’t: A front page story in today’s SF Chronicle, headlined “Keeping Hope Alive,” purportedly concerns local young woman named Katie Sharify, who was the last patient to receive an injection (adult stem cells made from . . . . Continue Reading »

Articles like this are ubiquitous these days: First, purportedly write about one thing that is entirely reasonable—but which, beneath that patina, is really about centralizing health care decisions and/or restricting expensive treatments, e.g. rationing.Yesterday I . . . . Continue Reading »

The current medical resource crisis has placed people in extremis in the cross hairs of rationing or abandonment.  We spend too much on end-of-life care, we are told.  Often we pour money into treatment and the patient dies anyway, “wasting” the resources.  Why pour good . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been to South Africa.  It was both a thrilling and, I must say, extremely depressing experience—what I call emotional whiplash.  I have never seen such poverty, and yet, the possibilities seem endless if the New South Africa can just grab the brass ring of economic and . . . . Continue Reading »

Euthanasia is not just a lethal act, but a deadly ideological appetite—one that is never satiated.  Once killing is unleashed as a solution to suffering, activists will always want more.  Always.  As I have written before, they remind me of the man killing plant in Little . . . . Continue Reading »

This interview by an utterly clueless interlocutor, illustrates why the proposed “international crime against peace” of “ecocide” would be so harmful to humanity.  Polly Higgens, the earth mother of the movement, would put the CEO of the tar sands development . . . . Continue Reading »

The rough idea behind gene therapy is to introduce a properly working replacement gene into the body via a virus.  If it works, the malfunctioning expression is repaired and the genetic disease either successfully treated, or even cured.  A new gene therapy has . . . . Continue Reading »

The NYT had a front page story today about the price still being paid for eugenic sterilizations, that in North Carolina’s case, extended into the 1970s!  Making NC’s program even more frightening was that social workers were empowered to make the decision as to who should never be . . . . Continue Reading »