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Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism, and consults for the Patients Rights Council.

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Gonzales v. Oregon a Very Narrow Ruling

From First Thoughts

I have now read the majority opinion. It wasn’t judicial activism. Indeed, the Supreme Court’s majority decision is not a broad endorsement of assisted suicide. In essence, the Court ruled that the Attorney General exceeded his authority in interpreting the Controlled Substances Act. . . . . Continue Reading »

Media Goes in Tank For Vilsack

From First Thoughts

As I suspected, the media is just swallowing the tripe served up by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack about new medical treatments from nuclear transfer requiring a change in the Iowa law. THERE HAVE BEEN NO NEW TREATMENTS. THERE HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS TAKEN FROM CLONED . . . . Continue Reading »

Judging the Secular Shamans

From First Thoughts

David Oderberg is a friend of mine from the UK and is a philosophy professor at Reading University. In this splendid column published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Oderberg takes on the worrisome trend in which many in society treat scientists as if they were priests. One cause of this phenomenon, . . . . Continue Reading »

What Is It About Cloning?

From First Thoughts

So now the human cloners in the UK have had a falling out. One researcher has accused his former partner of trying to steal the credit, or some such thing, and taken a job in Spain. He also accused the team of publishing their cloning findings before full peer review. The Newcastle cloning program . . . . Continue Reading »