Two Deaths in England

by The Editors

The First Things Podcast, Episode 30. Featuring: Fordham ethicist Charles Camosy on the euthanasia of Charlie Gard; and Julia Yost on sin and death in Jane Austen. Continue Reading »

10 Aug 2017

Putting Infants “Down Like Dogs”

by Wesley J. Smith

Once we reject human exceptionalism, injustices like infanticide start to seem virtuous. Continue Reading »

21 Jul 2017

Je suis Charlie, Once More

by R. R. Reno

When we lose the distinction between killing and letting die, euthanasia starts to seem more plausible. Continue Reading »

11 Jul 2017

Three Culture of Death Tipping Points

by Wesley J. Smith

Since Roe v. Wade, three major cultural tipping points fueled popular acceptance of our culture of death. Continue Reading »

9 Jun 2017

Time for a “Populist” Bioethics Commission

by Wesley J. Smith

Even chaotic debate (about cloning, gene therapy, and three-parent embryos) is preferable to our current, aimless drift. Continue Reading »

26 May 2017

“Speciesism” Opens the Door to Bigotry

by Wesley J. Smith

Those who throw out accusations of “speciesism” seek to subvert human exceptionalism. Their framework should be rejected as a prescription for tyranny every time it is proposed. Continue Reading »

3 Mar 2017

The Pig-Man Isn’t

by Wesley J. Smith

There has been much handwringing about the news that scientists injected human stem cells into pig embryos, creating a mostly-pig-but-a-little-bit-human chimera. Here are some other questions that must be debated about this emerging technology while it remains in the gestational stage: Continue Reading »

3 Feb 2017

Bioethics in 2017

by Wesley J. Smith

Here are five bioethical issues that have the potential to explode into controversy. Continue Reading »

6 Jan 2017

A Grim Harvest

by Allen H. Roberts II

Upon learning of his son’s fatal heart disease, a father arranges to donate his own heart in order to save his son’s life. The surgery will result in his death; his son will learn of it only after the fact. Should the hospital administrators allow the surgery to proceed?Ethicist Paul Ramsey . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2017

A “Merciless Assault on Human Dignity”

by George Weigel

In Ontario today, doctors who decline to euthanize their patients are required to provide an “effective referral”: They are obliged, on pain of losing their license to practice, to send a troubled patient to a doctor of lighter conscience who will kill that patient. Cardinal Collins is fighting this abomination. Continue Reading »

28 Dec 2016