Wesley J. Smith

This blog doesn’t deal with global warming per se, but it does worry about the corrupting influences on science and media exerted by ideology. Mostly, we have deconstructed this problem in the area of biotechnology. But the corruption has permeated the physical sciences, too, most particularly . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Times has noticed the crass utilitarianism that permeates the UK’s NHS—run by the Orwellian-named bioethics board National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)—and seems to be softening the ground for our accepting similar utilitarian overlords here. . . . . Continue Reading »

Dick Sosey is an American professor who teaches at the University of Alberta, Canada, and is an expert on issue of discrimination against people with disabilities. In response to a story published in the Denver Post about the murder of a boy with autism by his father, which Sobsey perceived to be . . . . Continue Reading »

In this week’s edition of my podcast, What It Means to be Human, I discuss the media’s fascination with, and often fawning reportage about suicide outlaws. Here is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Luxembourg is hell bent on enacting euthanasia legislation, but the sovereign Grand Duke Henri refuses to sign the bill, which would prevent it from taking effect. What to do? Change the constitution! From the story:Luxembourg was plunged into a constitutional crisis on Tuesday after the sovereign, . . . . Continue Reading »

A disturbing column in today’s LA Times has a woman wanting to “let” her Dad go by removing his feeding tube—which would really be to make him go, since there could only be one outcome from such a decision.Dad isn’t unconscious. He is debilitated and disabled by a . . . . Continue Reading »

Ba-lo-ney! A study claims that nearly half of our young people of college age have had a psychiatric episode in the last year. From the study:Almost half of college-aged individuals had a psychiatric disorder in the past year. The overall rate of psychiatric disorders was not different between . . . . Continue Reading »

They brought it on themselves, the private health insurers. Raising rates, cherry picking, too often trying to game people. So, now with the election of Barack Obama, the LA Times announces that there is a “consensus” to legally implement some form of nationally mandated health . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the great difficulties we have in debating important cultural and ethical issues is the lack of a common frame of reference. Or to put it another way, when language is used very sloppily—whether negligently or intentionally—it becomes almost impossible to adhere to precise . . . . Continue Reading »

Those biologists and philosophers intent on destroying human exceptionalism often argue that apes have ethics, albeit more rudimentary, just like people, and thus we must disabuse ourselves of the unique nature of human life.Not enough energy has been invested in pushing back against these . . . . Continue Reading »