Wesley J. Smith

There has been some media buzz about a new test that appears to show some patients, previously diagnosed as unaware (persistent vegetative state), can actually perceive.  From the New Scientist story:Owen and his team used an EEG on 16 people thought to be in a PVS and compared the . . . . Continue Reading »

First it was Caligula appointing the horse, “the noble Incitatus” as a Senator. Now, Occupy Denver has elected a dog named Shelby to be its leader. (They could shorten these things if they’d quit with the zombie chanting.) The basis for her elevation to leader of a leaderless . . . . Continue Reading »

I find it amusing that the Dutch media think this is a big story. Doctors have been euthanizing patients who never asked to be killed almost from the inception of the country’s euthanasia license, and nothing meaningful is done about it. (Worst case scenario: Keep medical license, receive 2 . . . . Continue Reading »

Obamacare is profoundly unpopular. Ohio provided vivid evidence of that disdain today, when voters by about 2-1 rejected Obamacare’s individual mandate.  From the Plain Dealer story:With more than 1.5 million votes tallied, Ohio Issue 3 is winning with more than 66 percent of voters . . . . Continue Reading »

My friends at the Discovery Institute are publishing a monthly on-line newsletter, edited by moi, called The Human Exceptionalist.  It is the next step up for the Center for Human Exceptionalism, of which I am co-director.As readers of SHS know, I believe that anti humanism is one of the major . . . . Continue Reading »

I wrote here a few weeks ago about the European Union’s highest court ruling that products made from embryonic stem cell research cannot be patented.  First Things asked me to do a longer article, which appears today in The Public Square.  I start by explaining that . . . . Continue Reading »

Remember the constant outcry against President George W. Bush’s embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) federal funding restrictions? Even though his administration issued more than $600 million in NIH grants for human ESCR, and much more than that for animal studies, Bush was castigated widely for preventing selfless scientists from creating a robust regenerative medical sector that, the critics claimed, possessed virtually unlimited potential to ameliorate suffering and cure disease… . Continue Reading »

I have been warning about this for years: Here’s the game that is afoot.  Some among the same sector that once assured a nervous culture that vital organs are only procured from the truly dead, are now saying it was a ruse all along. Understand, this isn’t an ethical call . . . . Continue Reading »

I knew this was true, but it is nice to see someone so close to the Obama Administration, namely Ezekiel Emanuel, say it.  Emanuel used to be the head bioethicist at the NIH and was one of President Obama’s primary advisers on healthcare issues. He is now a professor of . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Times has a sickening story on how badly helpless and vulnerable people with develomental disabilities are treated in state care.  (This is an issue I have seen first hand, once caring for a developmentally disabled man who was terribly abused while in state care.)  From, . . . . Continue Reading »