Wesley J. Smith

John Celmer, the man whose death is the subject of the Final Exit Network assisted suicide criminal charges, was not terminally ill. Indeed, he had apparently beaten his cancer. From the story: John Celmer was making what his doctor considered “remarkable progress” last spring after two . . . . Continue Reading »

Assisted suicide advocates pretend that they support hospice, but their work undermines the entire concept, or at least, twists it into something that would be unrecognizable by its creator, Dame Cecily Saunders. But now a lawyer named Michael Kaminkow, who is defending two of the Final Exit Network . . . . Continue Reading »

There she goes again—meaning Compassion (Hemlock Society) and Choices head Barbara Coombs Lee—pushing the baloney that assisted suicide is only about preventing unalieviable suffering for the terminally ill. Worse, she engages in irresponsible demogoguery about proper care of dying . . . . Continue Reading »

It was a given that the Obama Administration would attack the “Bush Conscience Clause.” And that process has begun. But it may a revision rather than a rescission, and indeed, perhaps one I could support. From the story:The administration took the step because the regulation was so . . . . Continue Reading »

I was recently asked to assume more responsibilities for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. I agreed and am now its associate director. This new gig will include speaking, writing, and media on the specific topic of euthanasia/assisted suicide. It will not affect nor . . . . Continue Reading »

Jet lagged from my recent journey to Ireland/UK, where there is an 8 hour time difference, and up at 3:30 AM, I decided to see what I had missed at The Corner and ran across an entry by Jonah Goldberg discussing a debate between two philosophers, Alvin Plantinga and Daniel Dennett. Plantinga . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been following various aspects of the FEN activists’ arrests. But this aspect of the story really caught my attention. SHSers will recall that I mentioned the book A Chosen Death in a previous post, and how its author Lonny Shavelson watched a Hemlock operative kill “Gene” . . . . Continue Reading »

Jack Kevorkian, who painted the delightful picture above, helped kill people—other than Thomas Youk, who he lethally injected—via an assisted suicide machine in which the client flipped a switch opening the valve of a canister containing carbon monoxide. Yet, he has come out against the . . . . Continue Reading »

Compassion and Choices (formerly the Hemlock Society) has played a crafty game of pretense about the ultimate goals of its assisted suicide campaign. In debates (including those in which I have participated), in media interviews, in press releases, etc., its representatives have claimed that C and C . . . . Continue Reading »

In the wake of the arrests of four assisted suicide activists from the Final Exit Network, I believe an effort will be made to cast them as fringe characters within the movement.Don’t believe it. One of the four is Ted Goodwin, who is the head of the FEN. Goodwin has been a stalwart in the . . . . Continue Reading »