Wesley J. Smith

There NICE goes again.  The (misnamed) National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence—actually the UK’s health rationing agency—plans to turn down a breakthrough treatment for advanced stage melanoma. From the Oncology Report story:A drug considered a breakthrough . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a piece in the current Center for Bioethics newsletter about the so-called “duty to die.” I discuss two examples of notable bioethicists advocating a duty to die, with quotes.  I then note that enacting such a legal duty remains theoretical, but note that may be less . . . . Continue Reading »

Oh, that evil Big Pharma:  GlaxoSmithKlein has developed at great cost, over about two decades, a vaccination that can save many people—particularly children—from contracting malaria.  From the Guardian story:Millions of children’s lives could be saved by a new vaccine . . . . Continue Reading »

Good. As anticipated, the EU’s top court has banned patents on embryonic stem cells as EU law prohibits patenting products that came from destroying embryos.  From the France International News story:Europe’s top court on Tuesday banned researchers from patenting any process to . . . . Continue Reading »

With the failure of Hillarycare in the early 1990s, health maintenance organizations became one of the primary forms of American health insurance.  Liberals screamed–including yours truly–that HMOs cut levels of care and stint on patient welfare in the name of saving money.  HMOs . . . . Continue Reading »

The Culture of Death is voracious.  Once it begins to feed, it is never satiated, the categories of the killable, never finally enough.Another is a very long series of cases in point that I have been reporting on for nearly twenty years.  The Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) now seeks to . . . . Continue Reading »

The AMA News has an article out about how Obamacare is looking increasingly to bust the bank.  It gets into the supposed need to restrict access to treatments based on ”evidence based” medicine, the propriety of which, it seems to me, depends on how that term is defined in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Be afraid. Be very . . . . Continue Reading »

The emotional commitment in some intellectual quarters to human UNexceptionalism continues to alarm me.  As does the belief that scientific findings have reduced us to mere meat.  We are far more than that.Part of it may involve a disdain for religion in some quarters that conflates HE . . . . Continue Reading »

Progress.  Senegal is slowly moving away from the practice of cutting off girls’ clitorises.  From the New York Times story:,SARE HAROUNA, Senegal — When Aissatou Kande was a little girl, her family followed a tradition considered essential to her suitability to marry. Her . . . . Continue Reading »