Wesley J. Smith

I have heard from some people who have complained that they can’t comment here at Secondhand Smoke. That is because to do so, one needs to be a registered user of Blogger. I have checked to see if there is a way around that requirement and have been told that to permit non Blogger users to . . . . Continue Reading »

The release of the second update of my book Forced Exit (originally published in 1997 and updated in 2003))has been delayed due to the publisher, Encounter Books, moving from San Francisco to New York. The new edition will be a paper back and readers of the original will find it somewhat streamlined . . . . Continue Reading »

The national board of LULAC, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, has unanimously opposed assisted suicide in general and California’s AB 651 in specific. The MSM continue to attempt to portray opposition to assisted suicide as a product of religious conservatism. This . . . . Continue Reading »

Belgium only legalized euthanasia a few years ago and it is already catching up with the Netherlands’ fall off the vertical moral cliff. One of the ruling parties is calling for permitting euthanasia to minors under 18 and for parents to permit the mercy killing of their children. It took the . . . . Continue Reading »

You’ve read me, now hear me give a speech, which I called “Bioethics: Creating a Disposable Caste?” It was presented in Washington DC at the Discovery Institute Washington DC headquarters on 2/22/06. It is an MP3 format . . . . Continue Reading »

This is a wonderful breakthrough in tissue engineering: Scientists took bladder and muscle cells from children with bladder disease. They then rebuilt them into a functioning bladder, which was attached to the children’s existing bladders. The result is much improved bladder control without . . . . Continue Reading »

This is what I have been warning against if we reject human exceptionalism, which can lead to an embrace of radical misanthropy. Apparently, Eric R. Pianka, a (deep) ecology professor speaking at a science symposium in Texas predicted in hopeful terms the outbreak of an ebola pandemic that would . . . . Continue Reading »

Both the Schindlers—what a wonderful family—and Michael Schiavo have books out about the death of Terri. If book sales are any indication, the nation remains divided by the case. I have been tracking the Amazon book rankings of both books and they have remained within one hundred of each . . . . Continue Reading »

I am not writing much about the Terri Schiavo case any more. Partly, this is because most people’s views about her death are now set in ten feet of concrete, and nothing I say or write will change it. And partly it is because there is so much about which to be concerned, that there just . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a column in today’s Seattle Times against assisted suicide that urges readers to consider the context in which assisted suicide would be carried out. (It is a rewritten version of a piece that first appeared a few months ago in the Orange County Register.) I bring this up because the . . . . Continue Reading »