Wesley J. Smith

There is an awful case in Washington of a man killed during sexual congress with a horse. Apparently, this occurred at a farm known among those who engage in that sort of thing for permitting animals to be used as sexual objects, and yes, unfortunately, video taping is involved. I only mention it . . . . Continue Reading »

It looks like a type of umbilical cord blood stem cell may have the properties sought by scientists for use in medical treatments. This is known in science-speak as pluripotency, that is, the ability to morph (differentiate) into different tissue types. This is another bit of interesting news that . . . . Continue Reading »

The UK may now permit embryo screening for sex selection. China and India have legal and illegal sex selection already, leading to a wide imbalance of males over females. Other biotechnologists propose screening out embryos who might get cancer in their adult lives. Increasingly, child bearing is . . . . Continue Reading »

If this had been done with embryonic stem cells, it would be on the front page of the New York Times, but I doubt the “Gray Lady” will even report the story. But Secondhand Smoke will: Adult stem cells have now proven successful in treating acute renal failure in rats. Not only that, but . . . . Continue Reading »

I wrote recently about the offensive PETA Animal Liberation Project, which compares lynched blacks with slaughtered cattle and makes other similar implied minorities-are-no-better-than-animals photographic juxtapositions. Civil rights groups are rightly expressing outrage. While an organization . . . . Continue Reading »

Hard to blog with dial up. I’ll be back at it as soon as this technical issue is . . . . Continue Reading »

As I expected, PETA’s equating animal husbandry with the evil of the American slave system is provoking outrage. As it . . . . Continue Reading »

A new Pew Poll is out with some very interesting results. First, only 44% support making it legal for doctors to assist the suicides of patients. When the terminology is changed to permit doctors to give their patients the means to make themselves die, the number is still only 51%. This is a far cry . . . . Continue Reading »

Harvard’s Doug Melton is one of the nation’s foremost biotech researchers into embryonic stem cells. He was interviewed recently in Discover magazine. You need to be a subscriber to access the entire article. So, I have reprinted a few choice quotes from the piece below, which provide . . . . Continue Reading »

Scientists may have discovered stem cells in human placentas that are pluripotent. If true, with 4 million births in the USA each year, there would be plenty of these stem cells obtainable. Isn’t it amazing? The afterbirth is looking like a tremendous potential source of moral and ethical . . . . Continue Reading »