Wesley J. Smith

I was contacted recently by Wellsphere and asked permission to have SHS linked to its site as “a top health blogger.” I was very pleased to agree. Wellsphere seems to be a cross between My Space and Beliefnet: There are many blogs on bioethics, medicine, and other matters that might be . . . . Continue Reading »

Jack Kevorkian was the ground breaker in modern times: A man made world famous helping people with disabilities, the terminally ill, and the existentially suffering kill themselves. For that, he now makes $50,000 a speech. In Australia, Philip Nitschke has counseled the suicides of people who were . . . . Continue Reading »

The coalition against assisted suicide is made up of many branches that constitute a rare alliance among people on all sides of the ideological and religious/secular divides that are literally tearing this country and much of Western Civilization apart. Thus, disability rights . . . . Continue Reading »

In my observation, PETA has very little regard for facts, and one might even say, less for truth. I think this is exemplified in a minor contretemps with the office of Governor Sarah Palin—who its leaders hate for obvious reasons. PETA claimed that Palin’s office threatened to sue over a . . . . Continue Reading »

The voices that yell loudest about “choice” tend to be the very ones that most enthusiastically seek to stifle it when they involve decisions about hot button moral issues with which they disagree. The St. Louis Post Dispatch is one such voice. Its editorial page weighed in today against . . . . Continue Reading »

A victim of ancillary targeting in the UK has testified in a criminal trial about the kind of hell he experienced merely for working for a company that had a relationship with Huntingdon Life Sciences. From the story: William Denison says what happened to his family at the hands of ALF extremists . . . . Continue Reading »

I believe that the issue of “conscience,” that is the right of physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals not to engage in intentional life-terminating actions will be huge in the coming decade in bioethics. It has already begun in Italy after a father won the right in court . . . . Continue Reading »

Kenya is a very poor country. But some among the assisted suicide crowd apparently see it as prime pickings for the well off in that country, with suicide tourism for profit being proposed. From the story:Kenya could become the first country in Africa to legalise doctor-assisted suicide if lobbying . . . . Continue Reading »

This is a story about love. It is also a story about community. And, for some, it will be perceived as a story about taking the reverence for life beyond reasonable limits.A child became profoundly disabled in a terrible mishap and now, having suffered a catastrophic brain injury, requires full-time . . . . Continue Reading »

I have an extended piece in the Weekly Standard on the Montana judge declaring it a “fundamental right” do “die with dignity”—e.g. to poison oneself with prescribed drugs—which as I noted in an earlier SHS posting about this, may be the only time that an advocacy . . . . Continue Reading »