Wesley J. Smith

Robert Latimer murdered his 12-year-old-daughter Tracy in 1993 because she was disabled by cerebral palsy. (The picture is of Tracy and her father.) While many Canadians supported Latimer as a loving father who put his daughter out of misery, he was convicted in of second degree murder. His first . . . . Continue Reading »

I reported here a few weeks ago that PETA had filed a complaint with the federal government against the Oregon National Primate Research Center, claiming abuses of the animals. I wrote then that I believed the claim would prove to be unmeritorious, as many (but alas, not all) of PETA’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Did they really need to do a study to answer this? The authors say it is about evolutionary imperatives. Baloney. Men are hound dogs. It’s that simple.Yes indeed, Secondhand Smokette is a much younger . . . . Continue Reading »

A presentation at a science convention has urged that scientists get involved in politics. From the blog description of the presentation:This morning, a group of panelists issued a call to action to a standing-room-only crowd at the American Society for Cell Biology’s 47th Annual Meeting: . . . . Continue Reading »

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, once dedicated to funding human cloning and ESC research, has shifted gears. Now, it is going to also fund alternative research that does not create or destroy human embryos. From the story:California’s stem cell agency plans to spend up to . . . . Continue Reading »

Much is being made of the report that a 7-year-old chimp beat college students in quick memory tests of number patterns. This doesn’t affect human exceptionalism, in my view. What makes us special goes far deeper than memory capacities.But it also may be less than meets the eye. As we know . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Times Magazine article about assisted suicide, byline Daniel Bergner, continues to amaze because his analysis actually looks behind the curtain of gooey euphemisms and blithe paeans to “choice.” The article, which I first referenced this weekend, is about former Governor . . . . Continue Reading »

With a government like this, terminally ill people don’t need enemies. Back in the late 1990s, federal bureaucrats began an assault on hospice known ridiculously as “Operation Restore Trust.” The idea was this: If a hospice patient on Medicare didn’t die within 6 months, the . . . . Continue Reading »

This column in today’s San Francisco Chronicle is a bit of a change of pace for me. I urge that marijuana be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act—meaning no legitimate use—and changed to Schedule II or III—which would permit doctors to prescribe it. (I . . . . Continue Reading »

Booth Gardner, former governor of Washington and a very rich man, intends to buy a law for Washington legalizing assisted suicide. His opening salvo comes in an extended piece in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. The piece is actually suprisingly fair, so fair in fact, that Gardner may . . . . Continue Reading »