Wesley J. Smith

Scientists have developed a new strain of wheat that can increase yields and resist a virulent fungus. From the Greenwire story via the NYT:A multinational group of scientists has developed farm-ready wheat resistant to a virulent and devastating plague that has slowly spread from Africa into the . . . . Continue Reading »

ESCR scientists are mounting a furious political assault against the lawsuit, currently back in Royce Lamberth’s court urging that human embryonic stem cell research continue to be funded by the Feds, hoping to pressure the judge to see it their way. From the Science Daily Story:Banning . . . . Continue Reading »

I can think of few things that would undermine universal human equality than for society to think that killing despairing people with serious illnesses or disabilities could be a splendid means of incresasing the supply of transplant organs.  I warned about this likelihood in my very first . . . . Continue Reading »

When I had the honor of interviewing the founder of  hospice, Dame Cecily Saunders, for my book Culture of Death, at the end of our conversation, I asked the usual catchall question of whether there was anything else she wanted to say.  She thought a moment and told me that her one regret . . . . Continue Reading »

A woman’s tribute to Kevorkian—a tattoo of one of his paintings.  He was a committed nihilist who said that the worst moment of his life was when he was born. I don’t know the woman, but tattooing that painting on your back for the rest of your life...well that’s a . . . . Continue Reading »

Everything is dangerous.  Everything.  Including sitting down:  From the CBS San Francisco story:Smoking cigarettes is the cause of so much preventable, deadly disease. But now new research shows sitting for long stretches of time may be just as dangerous. “Smoking certainly is . . . . Continue Reading »

Australia has feral camel problem. Not being marsupials, they are of course, not indigenous to the continent. Australia also has a bad case of global warming hysteria within the political leadership class. (To get elected, PM Julia Gillard promised not to enact a cap and trade law, and then openly . . . . Continue Reading »

After Jack Kevorkian died, I was asked by several publications to reflect on his death.  I did so in The Corner previously, and now I have two pieces out today bringing different angles to the same story.  First from the National Catholic Register:We should not speak ill of the dead, we . . . . Continue Reading »

No respectable public advocacy campaign should tolerate anti-Semitism in its name.  But the anti circumcision movement allowed one of its prime leaders—Matthew Hess—to engage in the most rank bigotry with his Mohel Monster character in the “Foreskin Man” comic book . . . . Continue Reading »

I don’t oppose transgenic use of animals to obtain legitimate medical substances.  For example, Dolly the cloned sheep was manufactured as the first step toward creating a genetically altered sheep herd that produced a protein useful in the creation of medicines.  That effort went . . . . Continue Reading »