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Feed Me!

Remember the play Little Shop of Horrors and the alien plant keeps demanding, “Feed me!” This is now the mantra of Big Biotech. In country after country, state after state,and locality after locality, lobbyists for the biotech industry, their research allies/business partners at . . . . Continue Reading »

THE ECONOMIST Notices Adult Stem Cells

I consider The Economist to be the world’s best weekly news magazine. I often disagree with its perspective, but its journalism is usually top notch. (For example, it was one of the only news outlets to report the great Advanced Cell Technology’s ES Cell Non Breakthrough correctly.) . . . . Continue Reading »

Singer’s Utilitarianism on Parade

It is interesting that Peter Singer’s approval of a monkey brain experiment is big news in the UK, but virtually ignored here. In this piece, the Independent points out (correctly) that Singer’s approval of the monkey experiment is not really a change, but a different expression of his . . . . Continue Reading »

The Texas Futile Care Law Has Got to Go

A broad based coalition of disability rights activists, pro lifers, and family members of ill patients are planning to pressure the Texas Legislature to change its ridiculous futile care law that permits hospital ethics committees to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment. The hospital associations . . . . Continue Reading »

More on Secular Bases for Exceptionalism

Human exceptionalism seems so self evident to me that I am somewhat nonplussed that it is even considered debatable. Yet, a growing chorus adamantly deny that humans are entitled to a special status. But many would-be exceptionalism debunkers seem to be skeptical as a means of achieving a particular . . . . Continue Reading »

Stephen Jay Gould on Human Exceptionalism

A reader of my recent article in National Review Online about Peter Singer’s approval of research conducted on monkeys, misunderstood me as perhaps not caring about cruelty to animals. I care very much about such matters, of course, and mentioned in my reply that treating animals humanely is a . . . . Continue Reading »

Penn and Teller Take Down PETA

I would normally post a video as effective as this one is at deconstructing PETA directly from YouTube onto Secondhand Smoke. But the title contains an epithet, and I couldn’t sanitize it here on the site no matter how hard I tried. Penn also has several foul mouthed moments, of which I . . . . Continue Reading »

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