Wesley J. Smith

I have noticed a slowly growing schism between animal rights and environmentalism. The former cares about each animal as individuals, perceiving their moral value (whether based on “painience” or “sentience”) to that generally accorded to human beings. Environmentalism, in . . . . Continue Reading »

A transhumanist’s guide to . . . . Continue Reading »

The UK is debating a new embryo bill that would, among other things, explicitly permit the creation of human/animal cloned hybrid embryos for use in research. And even though there is no attempt in the UK to outlaw human ESCR or human cloning using human eggs, Prime Minister Gordon Brown appears on . . . . Continue Reading »

This is interesting, considering the drive to refuse wanted CPR as “futile” when people are terminally ill. From a study published in the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing—Vol. 10, No. 3, May/June 2008 (no link available):There is little evidence CPR is not effective . . . . Continue Reading »

For years, California Assemblywoman Patti Berg (D- Mill Valley) has resorted to every conceivable maneuver she could think of to pass an assisted suicide bill through the California Legislature. She failed. So now, she is trying a different approach: Under the guise of requiring doctors to disclose . . . . Continue Reading »

I did a lot of media on my “Silent Scream of the Asparagus” piece in the Weekly Standard. But I am certainly not alone in noticing the extremes to which the Swiss are now going, not only with plant “dignity,” but also with certain “rights” for social . . . . Continue Reading »

John Harris is an influential UK bioethicist whose hard core utilitarianism makes his ideas dangerous and potentially as tyrannical as those of Peter Singer—perhaps more. I first became aware of Harris when researching Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, when I read an . . . . Continue Reading »

In Marshall McLuhan’s vast television wasteland that is getting vaster and more wasted with each passing year, there are a few shining examples of true excellence. Perhaps the best show on television today—and one of the best ever—is Battlestar Gallactica, a program that like the . . . . Continue Reading »

Advocates for an “anything goes” scientific sector often claim that attempts to place reasonable ethical parameters around biotechnology—say by outlawing all human cloning as has been urged by the UN General Assembly—is a war on science or the imposition of religion. That . . . . Continue Reading »

The Swiss ethics panel gives an example of violating “animal dignity.”A global warming scientist’s prayer the night before his big . . . . Continue Reading »