Wesley J. Smith

I have done a little more reading from the Edge, the self-described meeting place of the “most interesting minds” in the world. As some of you will recall from an earlier posting, the Edge is asking the brilliantly interesting among us to describe what they are scientifically optimistic . . . . Continue Reading »

Taken from the extracted wisdom teeth of young adults. And the beat goes . . . . Continue Reading »

When I was in South Africa speaking a few years ago, Secondhand Smokette and I made a point of traveling to a big game park so we could view the wild animals at close quarters. We stayed at Umlani, which is in a private park, and had a superb time viewing lions, a cheetah, elephants galore (a big . . . . Continue Reading »

So, the discussion about eugenics, which we got into here yesterday, has continued at The Corner today, and I got into the mix. For those interested, and to avoid a lot of scrolling, here is how it generally went: Derbyshire: “Re Eugenics” and “More Eugenics.” Followed by . . . . Continue Reading »

Gary Francione is an animal rights absolutist who believes that there should be no domesticated animals and no human use of animals for any purpose. I disagree, obviously. But as I have written, he walks the talk: He seeks to lead by example by promoting a 100% vegan lifestyle and he forcefully . . . . Continue Reading »

The media and politicians continue to pretend that ESCR will generally be restricted to frozen leftover embryos that are “going to be discarded anyway.” As I have been arguing for several years, this “limited” permissibility is, at most, just a way-station to gain public . . . . Continue Reading »

The CBC asked me make some predictions for 2007 in the fields of bioethics and biotechnology. Here it is for those who may be . . . . Continue Reading »

Dolly was born ten years ago (last July). Many think she was the first cloned mammal. Not true. She was the first mammal cloned with an adult cell. But that is neither here nor there. The point is that Dolly’s birth changed everything.The Scotsman reports about how a party is planned to . . . . Continue Reading »

John Derbyshire’s style of arguing is often to breezily skip past concrete issues rather than actually grappling with them intellectually. He does it again in the ongoing discussion at The Corner over eugenics, where he dismisses worries that eugenics thinking could result in the eradication . . . . Continue Reading »

Over at The Corner, there is some back and forth going on about the James Watson Esquire interview that I posted earlier today. John Derbyshire sniffs that the worry about eugenics is overblown, so long as it isn’t state imposed: “If you don’t like eugenics, you are not going to . . . . Continue Reading »