Wesley J. Smith

The SF Chronicle published an important column today by Dr. Lynn Ponton, a psychiatrist and professor at UCSF Medical School.  He describes a patient victimized by a physician writing a letter for medical marijuana.  From the column:“It’s my medicine, Doc,” said . . . . Continue Reading »

In a very strange decision, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the living will statute of Montana can be used as a defense by doctors who lethally prescribe, when the patient is terminally ill and the poison is self administered.  This is an audacious decision in one regard—as far as I . . . . Continue Reading »

The Supreme Court of Montana vacated a trial judge’s ruling that the Constitution of Montana prohibited assisted suicide for the terminally ill—but construed the state’s living will law as permitting doctors to prescribe lethal overdoses if the patient self administers.  This . . . . Continue Reading »

These stories happen so often, they are called “the Gore effect” from the propensity of the weather to turn frigid wherever he appears to wail about global warming.  A demonstration yesterday fizzled due to a blizzard. From the story:A downtown protest of the climate change talks in . . . . Continue Reading »

Transhumanists and other futurists insist that the future will bring us robots who have become “conscious” beings, and that when they do, “sentient” machines should receive what we now call human rights.  This is all fanciful, of course. Robots of the kind envisioned . . . . Continue Reading »

Over the Christmas holiday lull, I saw one commenter support Obamacare on the purely utilitarian grounds that the government should do that which benefits the most people.  I almost spit out my eggnog.  Obamacare will actually harm most people to benefit the minority by reducing the level . . . . Continue Reading »

I am not posting this YouTube video because Lord Monckton pretty much takes apart a Green Peace member about global warming. (She admits it is a matter of faith for her because she believes those telling her the planet is warming catastrophically.) Like the very nice interviewee, most people . . . . Continue Reading »

A book for men with Wesley’s 60-year-old knees.Piraro joins the hysterics . . . . Continue Reading »

Palliative sedation, that is putting an imminently dying patient into an artificial coma and allowing the disease to take its course, is a legitimate palliative technique—when the symptoms warrant it.  Thus, in the rare case where pain can’t be controlled or a patient panics due to . . . . Continue Reading »

The NHS continues to teach us important lessons. Once government bureaucracy gets hold of health care, the sky will be the limit—for their expenses.  This is especially true when things go wrong, since the answer to problems with centralized systems is, well, more central . . . . Continue Reading »