Wesley J. Smith

I like Bio Edge, which scours the world for cutting edge biotech and bioethics stories, which are adeptly summarized and sent to subscribers via e-mail. The writers generally get things right, but this Bio Edge story is both behind the times and factually wrong. It states that bioethicists are . . . . Continue Reading »

I really like Will Saletan’s writing on biotechnology in Slate. I don’t always agree with him. Heck, I often don’t agree with him. But he has a healthy skepticism about the political debate we are having on cloning/stem cells, and he unleashes it without fear or favor, including . . . . Continue Reading »

A Swiss assisted suicide organization called Dignitas has helped a depressed woman kill herself in Germany. True, the woman presented a fake medical report, stating she was very ill. But the head of Dignitas said it didn’t matter since, “in any case every person in Europe has the right . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been warning for some time now that the animal liberation movement seeks to change the law so that animals can be litigants in lawsuits. (What would really happen is the animal liberationists would be the litigants, with the animal as the unknowing “beard.”) Well it has happened . . . . Continue Reading »

Skin stem cells have been used to grow blood vessels. The good news just keeps on . . . . Continue Reading »

A human heart attack patient’s own bone marrow stem cells appear to be an efficacious treatment that materially assists recovery. Good news that will not be reported with embryonic stem cells for years—if . . . . Continue Reading »

I was asked by the Dallas Morning News to predict future biotech controversies, in a similar way as did the San Francisco Chronicle, published last week and linked here earlier. Here is the somewhat different version that appeared today in Texas. (Registration may be . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the big issues that causes many feminists to oppose therapeutic human cloning is the distinct possibility that women, particularly the most destitute women, will be exploited for their eggs. (One egg is needed per somatic cell nuclear transfer procedure.) When S. Korean researcher Woo-Suk . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s hoping this Australian lawsuit goes nowhere because if it is successful, the law would recognize the concept of wrongful birth. (I know it isn’t in the USA, but remember, our Supreme Court now looks to decisions overseas to determine American constitutional law.) If the parents . . . . Continue Reading »

Remember when President Bush faced his first big policy controversy back in the innocent days of 2001? The issue; whether and how the federal government should fund embryoninc stem cell research. The request from Big Biotech and their business partners in the universities: All we want is access to . . . . Continue Reading »