Wesley J. Smith

Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly, used to only want to clone animals for use in genetic engineering. He would never clone humans, he wrote in his book about Dolly. Then, when his animal cloning enterprise went financially belly-up, he moved into human therapeutic cloning experiments, receiving a . . . . Continue Reading »

Now this is telling: After all of the hype about how embryonic stem cell research holds much greater hope for cures than adult stem cell research, after all of the complaining that the field is being held back by funding limitations, here comes New Jersey accepting stem cell research grant . . . . Continue Reading »

There is nothing new in this Peter Singer opinion piece that he hasn’t written before, and more extensively. Being human isn’t what matters, it is being a person. In 35 years, we will have euthanasia, therapeutic cloning, etc. Only religious fundamentalists can object; yadda, yadda, . . . . Continue Reading »

There is an interesting and adoring article about Charles Darwin in today’s San Francisco Chronicle Insight section. The author, John Darnton, a New York Times journalist, celebrates Darwin’s intellect and his supposed turn from theist to atheist. (I have heard otherwise, but have no . . . . Continue Reading »

As readers of this blog and my other writings know, I have been warning for more than a year that therapeutic cloning will not long remain restricted to using early cloned human embryos in the Petri dish. And, I have pointed out repeatedly that New Jersey has already explicitly legalized . . . . Continue Reading »

PETA is after your children. In the latest outrage, PETA has told children whose fathers fish, that their dads might kill the family pet: “Until your daddy learns that it’s not “fun’ to kill, keep your doggies and kitties away from him. He’s so hooked on killing . . . . Continue Reading »

I have known about this for some time, but because I didn’t want to be guilty of the same hyping that is so often engaged in by some therapeutic cloning proponents, I waited until it was published in a peer reviewed journal. Now it has been and the news is HUGE: Korean scientists have used . . . . Continue Reading »

This story is written as if placing human genes in animals is something new. It reports on how UK scientists have engineered mice to contain human genes that are implicated in Down’s syndrome. The point is to help the researchers “identify which gene or genes cause each of the symptoms . . . . Continue Reading »

A Belgian chain of pharmacies has put together a killing kit for sale to doctors. For $74, physicians can buy kits filled with doses of lethal drugs. Says a lot about how casual killing can become once the law deems it a good thing in some cases. Also, note how cheap killing can be. Caring for . . . . Continue Reading »

I have always believed that Terri Schiavo could hear. This was based on conversations I had with people who were with her, and on the videos posted on the Internet. One in particular struck me: Terri is asked to open her eyes. There is a pause. Her eyes remain shut. Then, they flutter. Then, she . . . . Continue Reading »