Wesley J. Smith

Full disclosure: I have very little respect for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a political or moral leader. Well, that’s not quite right. Actually, I have none.Small case in point: Gingrich has claimed that human life only begins at “implantation,” and yet for some . . . . Continue Reading »

Bill Hurlbut is a very close friend and colleague, and thanks to a Kathleen Parker column in the Washington Post, he is in the news regarding former Governor Mitt Romney’s ideological transition from pro choice to pro life.  From “Behind Romney’s Change of Heart on . . . . Continue Reading »

To The Source asked me to comment on the birth of the 7 billionth living human being a few weeks ago.  I decided to take a different approach than the usual hand wringing and calls for increasingly intense efforts at population control.  Instead, I decided to point out that some are using . . . . Continue Reading »

Allow me to take a brief recess from our usual fare to tout a new Amazon Kindle essay written by my wonderful friend Joseph Bottum.  Amazon has begun publishing original pieces, and the company recently asked Jody to expand his beautiful essay, Dakota Christmas, . . . . Continue Reading »

Fifty years ago, the Hippocratic Oath’s proscriptions on medicalized killing were generally accepted within the medical professions and society generally.  Today, practioners of what used to be called the “healing arts” sometimes take part in killing (ending life) in . . . . Continue Reading »

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber is a hypocrite.  He was governor when the state’s assisted suicide legalization law went into effect and he administered the law with gusto, repeatedly stating that his job was to carry out the people’s will by moving doctor-presribed death into . . . . Continue Reading »

So, which is it?  Is ” mainstream bioethics” a “come let us reason together” learned discourse in which respected colleagues explore differing views and ethical outlooks, as some in the movement suggest?  Or, is it actually, as I opined in Culture of Death: The . . . . Continue Reading »

At least he read the piece, but John Farrell wrote right past the point in attempting to rebut my recent Weekly Standard column about the media’s biased coverage of Geron’s abandonment of embryonic stem cell research.  From “A Conservative Protest About . . . . Continue Reading »

We’ve dealt with this issue before when I reported about an article in the JAMA recommending the removal of morbidly obese children from their homes to foster care in very rare cases.  That is how things start in matters such as this. A highly nuanced article may lead . . . . Continue Reading »

Over the last several years, I have shifted from supporting single payer health care to embracing a regulated competition model.  As I have written often, I think the latter offers our best method of providing adequate coverage, at a better cost, with superior checks and balances . . . . Continue Reading »