Wesley J. Smith

Some scientists think we have no real free will, that our behavior and beliefs are dictated by our genes. (Then, they cannot be upset with me for thinking they are just so full of beans; my genes prevent me from seeing the light.) This theory is just one of many avenues to deny human exceptionalism, . . . . Continue Reading »

This correspondence is from Texas lawyer Jerri Ward, who has proved worthy of the honorific, attorney at law for fighting tooth and tong against futile care impositions in Texas (Andrea Clarke, for example). Jerri asked that I post it here at Secondhand Smoke. I do so because I trust Jerri. She has . . . . Continue Reading »

New legislation (HB 1094) has been filed in Texas to overturn its unjust and cruel futile care law. If the law passes, rather than patients only having 10 days to find another institution if a star-chamber ethics committee rules that treatment shall not be provided, the wanted life-sustaining . . . . Continue Reading »

As everyone knows, Viagra is used (and sometimes abused) as a treatment for impotency. It works by expanding blood vessels. Apparently, a prematurely born baby was on the verge of death and, in connection with heart surgery, some enterprising doctor prescribed Viagra—opening the child’s . . . . Continue Reading »

The drive to impose a new medical puritanism continues in the UK. Some doctors are apparently denying surgery to smokers and obese patients, not based on the exigencies of a their particular case, but because of disapproval of their unhealthy lifestyles. This is pure political correctness. You can . . . . Continue Reading »

The headline on this story is irresponsible because it implies that organs are being harvested before the donor is really dead. Not so. This organ procurement protocol, known as “non heart beating cadaver donor” removes organs from people who died from irreversible cardio/pulmonary . . . . Continue Reading »

I was noticing a dust up between two regulars here at Secondhand Smoke regarding analogies to Germany and the Holocaust and some of the issues with which we grapple here. I thought it warranted more than a post response from me.This is a sensitive matter. The bioethicist Art Caplan once said, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Economist gets it. In an article on the fuss generated by assisted suicide advocates—who want to call assisted suicide anything but what it is, e.g., suicide, (a matter about which I have previously posted)—reads, in part, as follows: (No link: Subscription Required)“Now, . . . . Continue Reading »

The best selling novelist Michael Chrichton’s most recent novel, Next, pokes hard at the business of biotechnology. He has also written this op/ed piece against gene patenting, a subject we have considered from time to time here at Secondhand Smoke. The following is part of what Chrichton . . . . Continue Reading »

This is such a joke: As I posted a bit ago, the International Society for Stem Cell Research has published a set of ethical guidelines to govern ESCR. Well, I opine—as I am wont to do—on the matter in the Daily Standard. I note that the people selected to be “the deciders” . . . . Continue Reading »