My wonderful and dear friend, Mark Pickup, has started a blog called Human Life Matters. I met Mark circa 1996 when we both appeared at an anti-euthanasia conference sponsored by the Compassionate Healthcare Network in Vancouver. We hit it off immediately and became the best of friends. I dedicated Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World to Mark with these words: “To Mark Pickup: Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
Mark is a powerful voice against euthanasia, for a human rights bioethics, and on behalf of disability rights. He is also an explicitly pro life campaigner and a Christian apologist. He brings to his work a depth of knowledge of the difficulties disabled people face due to his progressive multiple sclerosis.
I look forward to Mark’s comments and urge visitors to Secondhand Smoke to give him a try. Agree or disagree with his viewpoints, perspectives, and faith-oriented approach, Mark Pickup is a man of dignity whose voice is well worth hearing.
Lift My Chin, Lord
Lift my chin, Lord,Say to me,“You are not whoYou feared to be,Not Hecate, quite,With howling sound,Torch held…
Letters
Two delightful essays in the March issue, by Nikolas Prassas (“Large Language Poetry,” March 2025) and Gary…
Spring Twilight After Penance
Let’s say you’ve just comeFrom confession. Late sunPours through the budding treesThat mark the brown creek washing Itself…