Wesley J. Smith

I just received word that Javona Peters has passed away. It is my understanding that, to their credit, both parents who are estranged, never got to the place where they fought in court over removing her feeding tube, but instead cooperated in medical decision making. This may not assuage their grief . . . . Continue Reading »

The other day, to the consternation of some, I discussed my opposition to “off label” prescribing, meaning when a drug is approved for use to treat one malady, it is prescribed for a different one even though the medication was not specifically tested for that circumstance. To me, off . . . . Continue Reading »

This is worse than awful: A 54 day old baby was sexually abused and beaten to death by her father. Yet during her brief life 30 different health care workers cared for her, and somehow didn’t notice a thing. Plus, her mother is schizophrenic, which should have triggered a referral to social . . . . Continue Reading »

Good news in the Golubchuk case. The court has enjoined the hospital from cutting off Mr G’s treatment. But there will be a trial. But that is how it should be: Let these doctors and bioethicists justify themselves in open court in front of the press and the world and be subjected to cross . . . . Continue Reading »

I have warned that “personhood theory” will lead to terrible oppression of so-called human non persons. It allows cloning for the purpose of treating created human organism as a corn crop. It permits us to dehydrate people to death based on their once having made vague statements about . . . . Continue Reading »

I have seen cases like this before: Husband kills sick wife, claims she wanted to die. Facts later disclose he was getting some nookie on the side or wished to pursue other agendas. Classic example: George Delury who “assisted” the suicide of his wife Myrna Lebov, who was not terminally . . . . Continue Reading »

Geron has issued the latest in a long series of press releases claiming that it will soon be applying to the FDA for permission to conduct human trials of a medical trial created with ESCR. Why this is news beats me. As I have pointed out previously, it has been making the very same claim for years, . . . . Continue Reading »

The mainstream media is obsessed with “choice:” Abortion? Choice! Assisted suicide? Choice! Removing feeding tubes? Choice! Futile Care Theory? That sound you hear is the crickets chirping. Indeed, the De Moines Register has already editorialized in favor of futile care, saying the . . . . Continue Reading »

ULCA is the latest research center to successfully create induced pluripotent stem cells. From the story: Researchers at UCLA have become the first in the state to successfully create skin cells that can be used to treat a number of fatal or debilitating conditions without the use of human embryos . . . . Continue Reading »

Now here’s a story that gives the old saying, “the milk of human kindness,” a whole new meaning. It turns out that breast milk may contain stem cells. From the story: The Perth scientist [Dr Mark Cregan] who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells . . . . Continue Reading »