Wesley J. Smith

I have written—and received much flack for so doing—that organ procurement agencies should announce they will not accept organs from suicides.  I wrote in reaction to people who committed suicide—apparently in part anyway—to donate organs.  My point is to prevent . . . . Continue Reading »

The Discover magazine blog has a piece posted by one Kyle Munkittrick, which explains in a very succinct and understandable way, the socially anarchic values that lie at the heart of transhumanist Utopianism. First, Munkittrick describes the near-metaphysical goals of the movement: From “When . . . . Continue Reading »

I noticed several news stories about an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocated removal of obese children from their parents and putting them into foster care as a way of preventing harm.  To say the least, that seemed a very provocative and controversial . . . . Continue Reading »

David Brooks has a column in today’s NYT that offends on several levels.  But I want to focus here on the prejudicial language he uses to describe people with quadriplegia.  From his column : Life is not just breathing and existing as a self-enclosed skin bag. It’s doing the . . . . Continue Reading »

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 »