Wesley J. Smith

Fifty years ago, the Hippocratic Oath’s proscriptions on medicalized killing were generally accepted within the medical professions and society generally.  Today, practioners of what used to be called the “healing arts” sometimes take part in killing (ending life) in . . . . Continue Reading »

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber is a hypocrite.  He was governor when the state’s assisted suicide legalization law went into effect and he administered the law with gusto, repeatedly stating that his job was to carry out the people’s will by moving doctor-presribed death into . . . . Continue Reading »

So, which is it?  Is ” mainstream bioethics” a “come let us reason together” learned discourse in which respected colleagues explore differing views and ethical outlooks, as some in the movement suggest?  Or, is it actually, as I opined in Culture of Death: The . . . . Continue Reading »

At least he read the piece, but John Farrell wrote right past the point in attempting to rebut my recent Weekly Standard column about the media’s biased coverage of Geron’s abandonment of embryonic stem cell research.  From “A Conservative Protest About . . . . Continue Reading »

We’ve dealt with this issue before when I reported about an article in the JAMA recommending the removal of morbidly obese children from their homes to foster care in very rare cases.  That is how things start in matters such as this. A highly nuanced article may lead . . . . Continue Reading »

Over the last several years, I have shifted from supporting single payer health care to embracing a regulated competition model.  As I have written often, I think the latter offers our best method of providing adequate coverage, at a better cost, with superior checks and balances . . . . Continue Reading »

The human body and its constitutent parts are fast becoming among the world’s most valuable “natural resources.”  Indeed, ounce for ounce, human eggs are probably the most expensive (now) commodity in the world.Because human bodies are so valuable, biological colonialism . . . . Continue Reading »

Today, the NYT carried a letter to the editor from an Obama Adminstration representative, reacting to a column published in the Gray Lady’s op/ed page that criticized the government’s crackdown on medical marijuana, an issue we have discussed here also at SHS.  The letter . . . . Continue Reading »

By the President of the United States of AmericaAProclamationThe season is nigh when, according to the time-hallowed custom of our people, the President appoints a day as the especial occasion for praise and thanksgiving to God. This Thanksgiving finds the people still bowed with sorrow for the . . . . Continue Reading »

Donald Berwick has resigned as the head of Medicare.  From the Boston Globe story:Don Berwick, the Harvard professor who was tapped by the Obama administration to lead the overhaul of the massive Medicare and Medicaid programs, resigned today — just months before he was scheduled to leave . . . . Continue Reading »