Wesley J. Smith

In the NRO, I credited President Bush’s ESCR funding restrictions for having played a part into the quest to find non-embryonic sources of pluripotent stem cells—cells “the scientists” insisted they needed to fulfill the total promise of regenerative medicine. My thinking is . . . . Continue Reading »

Saving the planet is all the rage these days. Now, an Australian bioethicist wants to charge people a carbon tax for having children. The money would be used to plant trees as an offset to the global warming that the new children would allegedly cause. From the story:Professor Walters, clinical . . . . Continue Reading »

The ALF has vandalized a researcher’s car in Oregon and boast about it. From the story:Animal-rights saboteurs have claimed responsibility for vandalizing the property of a second Portland-area scientist who uses monkeys in his research. In a message Friday, the Animal Liberation Front . . . . Continue Reading »

I had to think about this, but I think the parents’ decision to order their profoundly disabled daughter not to receive CPR at school if she has a cardiac arrest is very wrong. From the story:As the school bus rolled to a stop outside her Lake County home, Beth Jones adjusted the bright yellow . . . . Continue Reading »

This isn’t good: In the UK some organs have been transplanted from drug addicts and cases of drug overdose because, allegedly, cases were desperate. And the answer to this disturbing bit of news? “Presumed consent” to organ donation. From the story:Hundreds of below standard . . . . Continue Reading »

Stories like this are finally breaking the back of the CURES! CURES! CURES! ESCR/cloning hype brigade: A patient is being treated with bone marrow stem cells as part of spinal surgery to help in healing. From the story in the Sacramento Bee, no less:They are not from human embryos, but the stem . . . . Continue Reading »

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that 10 grant applications to fund research have been rejected by the CIRM staff due to conflict of interest violations. That’s good. But get this: The agency is refusing to divulge which members of its steering committee violated the rules. From the . . . . Continue Reading »

This article is a pretty good summary of the presentation I made at the international anti-euthanasia conference in Toronto last week. (Kudos to Alex Schadenberg, head of the Canada-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, for spearheading such a successful and important get together. Many leaders in . . . . Continue Reading »

The potential for conflict of interest is always an issue when billions of dollars are on the line. But it is built into the system of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, tasked with distributing $300 million of borrowed money each year for cloning, embryonic, and now iPSC research. . . . . Continue Reading »

Research into the new iPS cells is moving forward at a seemingly breathtaking pace. Mouse studies carried out at Harvard demonstrate that they have the capacity to treat sickle-cell anemia. From the story:Mice with a human sickle-cell anemia disease trait have been treated successfully in a process . . . . Continue Reading »