Wesley J. Smith

People are losing trust in medicine. This is a very bad thing. And doctors are taking note. From a column by a surgeon named Pauline Chen published in the New York Times: “I don’t rely on the doctor anymore. These days, you have to look out for yourself.”Those words, and the smell . . . . Continue Reading »

Rita Marker is primarily responsible for dragging me kicking and screaming from pursuing Naderite endeavors to fighting against euthanasia and assisted suicide. I have worked with her closely for 15 years and have seen her dedication and intelligence first hand. If any single person can be credited, . . . . Continue Reading »

Slate’s Will Saletan is an interesting (and sometimes maddening) writer who writes about the raging bioethics/biotech debates from a uniquely oblique angle that often exposes the surrealism of modern times. Case in point, an op/ed piece in yesterday’s Washington Post. He . . . . Continue Reading »

This very funny satirical sketch takes down the two most notable women in contemporary American politics. . . . . Continue Reading »

The Washington Post has a sobering front page story about what it is like to raise a Down child: Credit the selection of Sarah Palin as Vice Presidential candidate for the interest shown. I was heartened by some of what I read, and very much appalled. From the story:But the parents of children who . . . . Continue Reading »

Well, this explains a lot. (Just kidding.) There is a theory that eating meat is one reason why human beings developed our bigger brains. Now, credence might be added to that hypothesis with a study that shows non meat eating might actually shrink the brain. From the story: Scientists have . . . . Continue Reading »

The kind of vitriol still being aimed at Sarah Palin, as I have said previously, is not because of energy policy. It is because she has become a cultural symbol that some hate so deeply they are even willing to politically harm their own candidate in what appears to be a vain effort to destroy . . . . Continue Reading »

This is a disturbing turn of events. I noted to myself, but did not bring it up here, that a UK jury acquitted vandals who attacked a coal plant because it felt that fighting global warming justified their lawlessness.I bring it up now because it turns out that result was helped to be brought about . . . . Continue Reading »

Howard Kurtz, who has the media beat for the Washington Post (and who I know; nice guy), says the media are getting angry about the McCain/Palin campaign. “Getting?” He says it is because the rucus made about pigs and lipstick. Baloney. As I have noted here at SHS, I think they have been . . . . Continue Reading »

Breakthroughs continue to be made in the IPSC arena. One of the primary purposes for therapeutic cloning was supposed to be the ability to create pluripotent embryonic stem cell lines for study from patients with specific diseases. No cloned embryonic stem cells yet at all, but the IPSC lines are . . . . Continue Reading »