Wesley J. Smith

The Sunday Times has a good editorial out opposing the legalization of assisted suicide in the UK, which is now in the midst of a big policy push seen there every few years.  It is worth reading the whole thing, but I want to focus on two points that I think are especially salient.  From . . . . Continue Reading »

Assisted suicide proposals are almost always profoundly disingenuous, as I have been illustrating for years. For example, in Washington, doctors who assist suicides are currently legally required to lie on death certificates. Rather than list the actual cause of death—assisted . . . . Continue Reading »

The scientific “studies” purporting to prove that conservatives and liberals have different biological responses strike me as so dumb.  Usually, they conclude that conservatives are angry/scared/selfish and liberals are hopeful/kind/altruistic—you know, that liberalism . . . . Continue Reading »

I have commented on two issues relating to the recent publication of the American College of Physicians Ethics Manual. Generally, I have been pleased, with some exceptions noted, e.g. its failure to sanction doctors who assist suicides despite that lethal procedure being opposed by . . . . Continue Reading »

Who does the doctor serve?  When we lived in a society with common values, the answer was easy—the patient.  Today, not so easy.Now, doctors sometimes are asked to take lives, not just save them.  And there is a push within organized medicine to create a destructive dual . . . . Continue Reading »

Disgust was widespread in the attacks against Rick Santorum and his wife for taking their dead baby home to allow the family to grieve his death together.  Washington Post liberal columnist Eugene Robinson gratuitously brought the issue up on the Rachel Maddow show:“He’s . . . . Continue Reading »

I get banning smoking at the workplace.  But employers should not have the power to control what people do in their private time.  But USA Today has an interesting story out in which so many companies ban smoking by their workers wherever it happens, that to the point that they . . . . Continue Reading »

The American College of Physicians has issued new ethical guidelines. It is making for interesting reading and may provide future fodder for Secondhand Smoke.  But I wanted to discuss the College’s position on assisted suicide. First, it states that the College does not support . . . . Continue Reading »

Cosmetic surgery (not reconstructive) is a waste of medical resources and deprofessonalizes medicine by diverting medical assets—doctors, nurses, medical facilities etc.—out of the healing arts and into lifestyle-enhancing procedures. It can also be unsafe.  People have . . . . Continue Reading »

I did about 15 minutes on WSAU AM radio this morning on Obamacare and the growing threat of “nature rights.”  If you have nothing else to do while washing the dishes, check it out here.  . . . . Continue Reading »