Wesley J. Smith

NYT columnist David Brooks often disappoints, but he has an awful column out today that not only exhibits (I hope an unintended) loathing of people who are living with serious disabilities, but which could also be fairly construed as the early spade work for establishing a duty to die among those . . . . Continue Reading »

The UK is falling off a vertical moral cliff on the assisted suicide issue.  It remains a crime.  But the Public Prosecutor of England and Wales has stated that if, after a complete investigation, it is determined that family or others who assist suicides did it for an altruistic reason, . . . . Continue Reading »

Once in a while, a small story captures a piece of the contemporary cultural zeitgeist in which our hyper emotions about animals reaches the point of neurotic behavior.  I think this case of a woman trying to save ducks on a freeway, qualifies. From the Everett Herald story:Traffic tangled on . . . . Continue Reading »

Some abortion opponents use graphic and bloody photos of aborted fetuses as a method for turning people off to abortion rights.  I have never approved of such tactics.  While a few may be persuaded, it seems to me most perceive it as a form of assault that is much more likely to turn . . . . Continue Reading »

Bioethicist Daniel Callahan has an interesting bit out at the Hastings Center blog.  He says the term “immoral” is way overused in bioethical debates. As an example, he notes that he opposes proposed cuts in the “safety net,” but says that those who disagree with him are . . . . Continue Reading »

My friend H. Tristram Engelhardt was one of the pioneers in the field that came to become to be known as bioethics.  Over the years, he has been mining an intellectual vein of analysis that could be called libertarian bioethics, that is (in a nutshell), he believes that with the decline of . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a very good friend and relative going through harrowing health times. He sent me this poem, written by a teenager dying of cancer, and asked me to pass it on. Her dying wish is to have it read by as many people as possible.  Here it is:SLOW DANCEHave you ever watched kids On a . . . . Continue Reading »

Bioethics founding father, Daniel Callahan, has long called for a reevaluation of our open-ended approach to medical innovation—a field that he worries has developed a “research imperative”—as a way to prevent a total blowout of health care costs.  The idea in a very . . . . Continue Reading »

Moving forward on the adult stem cell front, a new study shows that human heart patients were helped significantly with an injection of adult stem cells in cases where no other treatment proved efficacious.  From the Cyprus Times story:An injection of stem cells into the heartcould offer hope . . . . Continue Reading »

A picture is worth a thousand words...but probably not in the way Piraro . . . . Continue Reading »