Wesley J. Smith

All of the advocacy and tub thumping promoting the euphemist phrase “death with dignity,” accompanied by widepread media and the public support for the suicides of people with disabilities or serious illnesses, sends the insidious message to similarly situated people that they are . . . . Continue Reading »

I have written previously of the case of Dr. Hootan Roozrokh in San Luis Obispo, who is accused of attempting to hasten a patient’s death in order to be able to harvest his organs. A letter to the editor by a physician named John P. Okerblom, M. D. , objects. He writes:Case sends . . . . Continue Reading »

I have met people with severe chronic pain in my travels and at my speeches. These people live very difficult lives that requires strong medical and emotional support from family, friends, and communities to help them keep going. Unsurprisingly, suicide levels among sever chronic pain sufferers is . . . . Continue Reading »

In my recent First Things article on the passage of I-1000’s assisted suicide license, I warned:And with that success, the sails of the ghost ship Euthanasia rippled with the briskly rising breeze, and once again began to plow through the waves toward other shores, far and near. Soon, . . . . Continue Reading »

I am back in the podcast business, renamed from Brave New Bioethics to What It Means to be Human. After consulting with my colleagues at the Discovery Institute—which is producing the broadcast—we decided that since I am dealing with issues well beyond bioethics now, the new title was . . . . Continue Reading »

I wrote earlier this year about the Kennedy/Brownback bill, intended to prevent parents from being pressured into (or against) eugenic abortion when a gestating baby is found to have a condition such as Down syndrome, dwarfism, or cystic fibrosis. I am happy to report that it was signed into law, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Bush embryonic stem cell funding limitations will be histoire as of January 20, 2009. But the advances in ethical stem cell research, that I believe his policy did much to promote, will not abate. Now, umbilical cord blood stem cells have been used to create rudimentary heart valves. From the . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a tragic case ongoing in Washington DC that involves the definition of death and religious belief. A 12-year-old boy, known publicly as M.B., has been declared dead by neurological criteria (popularly known as brain dead). The doctors want to terminate the medical machinery that is keeping . . . . Continue Reading »

After Washington voters passed I-1000 legalizing Oregon-style assisted suicide, First Things asked me to weigh in with some analysis. I look at the matter from two angles. The first is political. I noted that the assisted suicide movement had been essentially moribund since the passage of . . . . Continue Reading »

Between 1994 and last Tuesday, the assisted-suicide movement in this country was moribund. After Oregon passed Measure 16 (the Death with Dignity Act) in 1994 and saw it go into effect in 1997—despite widespread expectations, myriad state legislative efforts, and two voter referenda (Michigan . . . . Continue Reading »