Wesley J. Smith

The NIH has determined it will restrict—not eliminate—federal funding of medical research on chimpanzees.  From the NYT story:The National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform . . . . Continue Reading »

Obamacarians told us that the more we learned about the law, the more it went into effect, the more popular it would be.  Wrong.  Rasumussen has consistently shown that about 55% of likely voters want it repealed.  Now the AP Poll reports that the law’s popularity is also . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a piece in the Daily Caller about protecting the conscience rights of medical professionals who wish to maintain traditional Hippocratic Values. First, I set up the context. From “Should Doctors be Forced to Kill?”  Fifty years ago, doctors would have been excoriated . . . . Continue Reading »

I was sorry to learn this morning that the great writer Christopher Hitchens—and I mean I wish I had half his talent and ability—has died. I believe he was the best crafter of the magazine essay of our times, with whom I agreed more than occassionally, . . . . Continue Reading »

Each month I edit an online newsletter through the auspices of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.  The December issue is now out.  Here’s my introductory letter:The Human Exceptionalist - December 2011The morality of the 21st century will depend on how we . . . . Continue Reading »

If assisted suicide advocates get their way, Canada will have suicide clinics in major cities the way it has Tim Horton coffee houses.  An amicus brief in the British (the fix is in) Columbia lawsuit to create a right to be made dead, looks to Switzerland as the model.  From the Globe and . . . . Continue Reading »

This is unbelievable—except it isn’t: A front page story in today’s SF Chronicle, headlined “Keeping Hope Alive,” purportedly concerns local young woman named Katie Sharify, who was the last patient to receive an injection (adult stem cells made from . . . . Continue Reading »

Articles like this are ubiquitous these days: First, purportedly write about one thing that is entirely reasonable—but which, beneath that patina, is really about centralizing health care decisions and/or restricting expensive treatments, e.g. rationing.Yesterday I . . . . Continue Reading »

The current medical resource crisis has placed people in extremis in the cross hairs of rationing or abandonment.  We spend too much on end-of-life care, we are told.  Often we pour money into treatment and the patient dies anyway, “wasting” the resources.  Why pour good . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been to South Africa.  It was both a thrilling and, I must say, extremely depressing experience—what I call emotional whiplash.  I have never seen such poverty, and yet, the possibilities seem endless if the New South Africa can just grab the brass ring of economic and . . . . Continue Reading »