Wesley J. Smith

Gallup has issued its annual poll on what Americans think are morally appropriate behaviors, some of which deal directly with the issues about which we grapple here at SHS, and some of which don’t. My last post on the poll covered issues dealing with the use of animals. Now, we turn to . . . . Continue Reading »

Human exceptionalism is not only about human rights, but also human duties, including never using human beings as mere objects and the need to treat animals properly and humanely. The new Gallup Poll about what Americans consider morally acceptable behavior is interesting in both regards, and thus . . . . Continue Reading »

The Oklahoma Legislature having voted unanimously to outlaw all human cloning—still no word on what the governor will do with the bill—state bureaucrats are now putting $5.5 million into adult stem cell research over the next five years. From the story: The Tobacco Settlement Endowment . . . . Continue Reading »

In a move geared to permit exploitation of the world’s most destitute people, the FDA has apparently decided to permit drug companies to conduct human subjects research overseas in ways that are barred under pertinent domestic ethical rules and guidelines. From the story : [T]rials performed . . . . Continue Reading »

This blog does not get into the specifics of global warming, but it does discuss how science is being corrupted by politics—mostly from the left—transforming the method into an ideology sometimes called scientism. Thus, in the stem cell debate, clear biological definitions have been . . . . Continue Reading »

Cynical me believes that if this rule had come down when Bush was president, the media would have been all over it—although I am sure he wouldn’t have been aware of it any more than President Obama is. In a move geared to permit exploitation of the world’s most destitute people, . . . . Continue Reading »

Alfie Patten, the thirteen-year-old boy who made a such a big, hand-wringing splash in the UK by claiming to have fathered a child with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend—who was also sleeping with several other boys—turned out not to be the father after all. From the story : DNA tests have . . . . Continue Reading »

Can you find SHS in this clever cartoon? . . . . Continue Reading »

The media repeatedly pound home the false meme that assisted suicide is only about people diagnosed with a terminal illness. True, some American activists make that argument. But the “terminal illness limitation” is unquestionably the minority view within the movement.Case in point: On . . . . Continue Reading »

A Pew Poll measuring the “happiness” of the American people is out, and good news for me, people get happier as they age. But that is not why I brought it up. Rather, I was taken by the analysis of the poll presented by science writer Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director of the on-line . . . . Continue Reading »