Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Wesley Smith
Top Journal Would Redefine Medical Condition to Suit Political Goals
It’s hard to top the World Health Organization’s wokeness, but an article in the New England Journal of Medicine manages that task. The question involves the definition of “infertility.” To the NEJM authors’ consternation, the WHO has embraced an objective, scientifically based approach to diagnosing the condition.
In Canada, New Push for Euthanasia for People with Dementia
Some are celebrating Canada’s government “indefinitely suspending” legalizing euthanasia for mental illness as a great victory for life. Not me. Here’s why. Of course, I am gratified that mental illness will not become grounds for being killed in 2027 as was scheduled. But note: In announcing the suspension, the government mooted legislation likely to pass that would have permanently outlawed killing for mental illness. Moreover, “indefinite” can mean years — or a month.
Get a Grip: “Claude” Isn’t a Person
Anthropic is anthropomorphizing its AI program known as “Claude” with the apparent intention of convincing us that powerful computer programs are — or can become — conscious “persons” with “feelings.” And, they think, Claude should one day be treated as such, to the point that they have held meetings with religious leaders to discuss the moral concepts that might apply.
Nature Rights — Now Coming to the United Nations
Panama has proposed that the U.N. General Assembly negotiate and adopt a “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature.” From the press release: In a historic development, the Government of Panama and For Nature have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly advance the adoption of a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature before the United Nations General Assembly, marking a significant milestone in the growing global movement to recognize ecosystems and species as...
Will You Take Ice with That? The Latest Madness from Nature Rights
We live in irrational times epitomized by the “rights of nature” (RoN) movement that seeks to grant human-type rights to various aspects of the natural world, including geological features. Alas, the movement is succeeding. Rivers have been granted rights, such as the right to flow (so much for flood control and hydroelectricity projects). Glaciers have been granted rights. A mountain in New Zealand has rights. The waves in a Spanish bay have rights.
Top Science Journal Would Empower Scientists to Rule on Income and Wealth
The other week, I discussed a Nature editorial advocating that scientists be required to “register” with the state. That policy, if enacted, would be a step toward establishing a technocratic rule-by-experts system by controlling what would be acceptable scientific discourse and who would be authorized to communicate about such matters. A new proposal, also in Nature, would push the West toward technocracy.
Register Scientists with the Government? Top Journal Says Yes!
Nature — the most prestigious science journal in the world — has editorialized in favor of requiring scientists to register with governments as a condition of participation in the sector. Here’s the context. South Africa has legislation pending that would require scientists to register with a government body or face significant legal consequences. Nature applauds the authoritarian idea.
Using Mild Language to Push Radical Nature Rights
The nature rights movement continues to advance into respectability against woefully insufficient resistance. Too many people don’t take the threat seriously because they consider it too crazy to be real. But the sheer nuttiness of the campaign isn’t the only reason for the movement’s continuing successes. Nature rights activists seem nice. They are not verbal bomb throwers. Rather, they deploy passive language to sell radical environmental and anti-free-market agendas.
Hey, Great News! Scientists Used AI to Create Viruses
Stanford scientists used AI to create an artificial virus. From the Wall Street Journal story: Artificial-intelligence systems have been displaying some eye-opening new abilities in recent weeks: breaking out of their enclosures, hacking other companies, lying to people. And now, for the first time, an AI model has created a new virus. A whole family of them, in fact.
Ghoulish Proposal: Killing for Organs Gets a Prestige Endorsement
The legalization of assisted suicide/euthanasia corrupts medical ethics and not just because killing patients or assisting their suicides is a direct violation of the Hippocratic oath. No: Transforming sick and disabled people into a killable caste also objectifies them as potential natural resources to be mined or harvested. Hastened death and organ-harvesting have already been conjoined in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
On Morality of Suicide, a Wide Disparity of Opinion; Why?
Gallup just issued its annual poll on “moral acceptability.” I was struck by the dramatically different results in the two questions about suicide. The first question asked about “doctor assisted suicide.” Close to a majority, 49 percent, of respondents answered that committing suicide with a doctor’s help is morally acceptable, while 45 percent responded that it is not.
Mission to Kill Dementia Patients Moves Forward
Serious moves are afoot to allow ending the lives of dementia patients, either by allowing them to be killed by lethal jab euthanasia if requested in a written advance directive (where legal), or to allow a document to be signed requiring caregivers to withhold sufficient food and water to sustain life. New Jersey seems to move subtly in the latter direction with a vaguely worded bill, S.B. 4186, that could open the door to intentional legal undernourishment.
Climate Science Journal Trumpets Glaciers’ “Right to Exist”
Environmentalism is growing increasingly radical and irrational, epitomized by the “nature rights” movement that seeks to declare geological features, flora, and fauna to be rights-bearing beings. Nature rights activists proselytize neoearth religion. Advocates often invoke mystical beliefs of indigenous peoples as justifications for their advocacy, including the invocation of “Pachamama,” the Incan earth goddess. Some activists even claim that the earth is alive.
Journal Advocates “Terminal Sedation” for People Committing Suicide by Self-Starving
In a newly released paper in the prestigious journal Bioethics, three prominent bioethicists argue that when someone decides to commit suicide via self-starvation and dehydration — known in euthanasia movement parlance as “voluntary stop eating and drinking” (VSED) — doctors should be allowed to “terminally sedate” the person trying to die when necessary to prevent intractable suffering. Patients who commit VSED are often not terminally ill.
Another “Scientific” Attack on Free Will
The attacks on one of the fundamental essences of being human — free will — continue apace. The latest example can be found in the BBC’s Science Focus feature, in which Stanford biology professor Robert Sapolsky — a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant for his work on the physiological effects of stress — redefines us as merely robotic biological machines incapable of making truly free decisions. We only think we “could have done otherwise” than what we did, claims Sapolsky.
Study Finds Gender Reassignment Harmed Mental Health of Adolescents
A new medical study out of Finland has found that gender-dysphoric adolescents and young adults who were subjected to gender reassignment interventions had worse mental health outcomes than a control group that did not receive such bodily alterations. The study tracked 2,083 people who had sought medical services for gender confusion between 1996 and 2019. The findings are quite specific.
In Drift Toward Instrumentalizing Humans, Western Medicine Follows China
Chinese doctors murder and organ harvest political prisoners. As detailed in Killed to Order, a thoroughly researched new book by Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek, political prisoners such as Falun Gong practitioners and Uygur Muslims are tissue-typed and killed to supply product for the country’s burgeoning transplant black market in human kidneys and livers.
Scientists Keep Removed Human Uterus Alive for a Day; Get Ready for Experiments
Brave new world alert! Scientists used a machine deployed in organ transplant medicine to keep a surgically removed human uterus alive for one day, furthering the goal of being able to use donated uteri experimentally over long periods of time, including for gestation. From the MIT Technology story: The team members want to keep donated human uteruses alive long enough to see a full menstrual cycle.
Ethics Journal Urges MANDATORY Abortion for Pregnant Minors
The push for unlimited abortion access is now advancing beyond the issue of “choice.” A newly published article in Ethics, the University of Chicago Press’s prestigious peer-reviewed journal, argues that pregnant minors must abort — even if that requires coercion and force. The authors, a University of British Columbia philosophy professor and an aspiring philosopher, emphasize the fact that minors are children.
In Latest Statement from a University, Tree Rights Advocacy Is Based on Irrationality
The University of Sussex has published a “toolkit” to enable political and legal action to grant “rights” to trees. This is consistent with the radical environmentalist activism seen in many universities, such as Harvard Law, which is now teaching “nature rights” principles and strategies to students.
In Sickness, These Are Profiles in Courage
As I am sure readers know, Ben Sasse is dying from pancreatic cancer. But that doesn’t mean he is through. The former senator has refused to allow illness to push him into a darkened room. Instead, he has continued a very public life and conducted several candid interviews about his circumstances — perhaps most notably with our friend Peter Robinson on Uncommon Knowledge.
How a Mentally Ill Woman Wrote Herself a Lethal Prescription
Most of the media are in the tank (remember Brittany Maynard?) for the assisted suicide/euthanasia agenda and, as a consequence, are primarily interested in reporting on stories of “good deaths.” That criticism does not apply to The Atlantic, which recently published a scathing exposé of the cruelties inherent in Canada’s euthanasia regime.
Bioethicist Jumps Shark, Goes After Whole Milk
The noted bioethicist Art Caplan — with whom I usually disagree, but not always — has really jumped the shark with a column in which he accuses the administration of pushing racism in its publicity promotion of whole milk as part of a healthy diet. From “Is the Recent Effort to Glorify Whole Milk Tainted by Racism?” published in Bioethics Today: As a student of and writer on the history of science and public health under fascist regimes, I am suspicious. Milk drinking is political.
Luskin on the Genetic Differences Between Humans and Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees, we are told, are the closest relatives to human beings. Indeed, for years scientists claimed that there is only about a one percent difference separating the human genome from that of chimps. Some advocates even claimed that means humans are mostly chimps, or that chimps are mostly human, eroding the principle of human exceptionalism.
In Spain, a Transplant Case Gives Heebie-Jeebies
Euthanasia conjoined with organ harvesting just took a particularly disturbing turn in Spain, where a woman was euthanized and then had part of her face transplanted. From the Catalan News story: Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona has performed the world’s first face transplant with a donor who passed away from euthanasia.
When Doctors’ Faith Loses to Bureaucratic Power
Freedom of religion is on the ropes in increasingly authoritarian Canada — despite a specific charter guarantee of “freedom of religion and conscience.” Indeed, an Ontario court ruled previously that doctors can be coerced under threat of professional discipline to perform lethal jabs or abortions against their religious beliefs and conscience objections. Why?
Goodbye, Burger: Oregon Law Would Ban Animal Agriculture
Animal rights activists pretend to be about animal welfare, but in reality, they want to outlaw all instrumental uses of animals. We can see this illustrated in Oregon, where animal rights activists are attempting to qualify Initiative Petition 28 for the November ballot. Proponents claim it is about ending cruelty. But the actual purpose is to effectively outlaw animal agriculture and hunting in the state. First, if passed, the law would create a legal equality between animals and people.
“Moral Philosopher” Decries AI “Speciesism”
Princeton “moral philosopher” Peter Singer has co-authored a piece decrying the “speciesism” of AI. What is speciesism, you ask? The misanthropic argument made by many bioethicists and animal rights activists that treating an animal like an animal is an evil akin to racism. In other words, herding cattle is as depraved as slavery. And now AIs are being programmed to promote speciesist immorality. Oh, no! From “AI’s Innate Bias Against Animals,” published in Nautilus.
For MAHA’s Sake, Don’t Eliminate Animal Experimentation
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made big news recently when he declared that he wanted to eliminate federal funding for research on primates and eventually end all government support for animal experimentation. RFK Jr. says he’ll work with federal agencies to wind down animal testing. One can certainly understand his reasons. Animal suffering makes anyone with a conscience flinch in empathetic revulsion.
Bringing a Horror to the U.S.: Assisted-Suicide Movement Wants It
Once someone is considered killable or supported in suicide, they may become objectified so as to be used instrumentally. Such is the case with people requesting to be euthanized. The idea is that they are going to die anyway, want to die — even as they do not receive suicide prevention — so we might as well get good use out of them such as by conjoining their hastened deaths with organ harvesting.
In Peru, Bees Are Granted the Right to Life
The rights of nature movement has been more successful than the animal rights movement. Geological features such as rivers, but few animals, have been granted rights. But now in a merger of sorts of these worldviews, stingless bees have been granted rights in two local ordinances in Peru.
How Far Will Experiments on the Unborn Go?
Work continues apace toward the goal of gestating babies outside a woman’s body. Scientists have now implanted human embryos in “organoids” made of tissues that mimic the uterine lining. From, “Researchers are Getting Organoids Pregnant,” published in the MIT Technology Review: In three papers published this week by Cell Press, scientists are reporting what they call the most accurate efforts yet to mimic the first moments of pregnancy in the lab.
Euthanasia and organ harvesting: Will this merger come to the US?
Photo: Getty Images/Kriangkrai Thitimakorn (National Review) — Once someone is considered killable or supported in suicide, they may become objectified so as to be used instrumentally. Such is the case with people requesting to be euthanized. The idea is that they are going to die anyway, want to die–even as they do not receive suicide prevention — so we might as well get good use out of them such as by conjoining their hastened deaths with organ harvesting.
Robert P. George on Human Exceptionalism
Whether or not human beings are exceptional is one of the most important questions of our age. Either we have unique value and moral responsibilities, or we are just another animal in the forest, and if that is how we perceive ourselves, it is precisely how we will act. Most contemporary commentary about this crucial issue denies our exceptionalism. But now, making his second appearance on the Humanize podcast, Princeton professor Robert P.
In Medicine and More, Canada Blazes a Trail to Authoritarianism
Freedom of religion is an internationally recognized fundamental human right. But in these increasingly secular times, efforts are ongoing to limit believers from living according to their faith outside of church, synagogue, mosque, or temple and home. In other words, religious freedom is being intentionally shriveled into a tepid and essentially toothless freedom of worship. Canada is leading that charge and, in the process, becoming increasingly authoritarian.
“Multispecies Society”: Get Ready for Wild Animals’ Rights
The push to grant rights to, well, everything continues apace. Now, a long piece in the progressive publication Current Affairs argues that “Wild Animals Deserve Rights, Too.” Animal-rights activist Michael Burrows writes: Wild animals deserve our attention and respect, for the same reasons that we should care about any creature: they are sentient, with recognizable social behaviors and emotions, and just like humans their lives have intrinsic value.
“Great Reversal”: Bonnassies and Miller on Evidence for God
The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That isn’t science. It is religion, and these days, many have come to believe that never the twain shall meet. But what if the reality of God could be demonstrated scientifically? What evidence would it take? What would be the consequence?
With Political Litmus Tests, Science Journals Go Anti-Science
Editors of many of the world’s top scientific and medical journals are destroying or — better stated, perhaps — have destroyed the public’s trust in scientific and medical leadership because these journals can no longer be deemed objective purveyors of truth. Nature and its associated science journals (Nature Portfolio), supposedly the most elite of the lot, are among the worst offenders.
“Harm Reduction” Harms the Homeless
The New England Journal of Medicine is again promoting failed progressive public policies. This time, it is “harm reduction.” From “The Erosion of Harm Reduction,” by Joshua Barocas, M.D. (citations omitted): Unlike the targets of many other recent attacks on public health and medicine in the United States, harm reduction is not a formal bureaucracy, but a philosophy and an approach to health care.
United States Is Becoming a Suicide Nation
The Illinois Legislature has just passed an assisted suicide legalization bill, tying a black bow along with New York’s legalization bill passed a few months ago. Both measures still await signing by the states’ respective governors, which I fear is quite likely as the death agenda is firmly ensconced in blue state policy on assisted suicide.
The Rise of “Green” Authoritarianism
A Green member of the House of Lords plans to introduce “nature rights” legislation. Not only would — basically everything — have rights, but these supposed liberties could be enforced against “individuals.” The authoritarian possibilities are unquantifiable. First, “nature’s” definition is so broad it includes just about everything in existence.
Human Reproduction Is Becoming Human Manufacture
Should men have the right to have their cells manipulated so they can become biological mothers? Should women past child-bearing age have the same right if their own eggs are no longer viable? More to the point, should we all have the right to do whatever it takes to have a baby if that is our desire and also, to obtain the baby we want? These questions have ceased to be grist for science fiction authors.
Contrary to Claims, Bioethics Is Not a “Moral Tradition”
Public-advocacy-focused secular bioethics is largely progressive politics covered with a veneer of expertise. While there are certainly university courses and degrees in the field, no bioethicist is licensed as such. Indeed, the entire discourse is purely subjective. It is driven mostly by philosophers, professors, doctors, and lawyers who opine about a particular set of issues, your faithful correspondent included.
Now, It’s Rights for Planets, Moons, and Space Microbes
If everything has rights — trees, geological features, animals, waves (yes, waves!) — then the core principle protecting human liberty becomes as worthless as currency during a wild inflation. Now, illustrating the Luddite sensibilities that permeate environmentalism generally and the nature rights movement specifically, a science journal has published advocacy by three astrobiology “ethicists” urging that planets, moons, and even space microbes be granted rights.
J. K. Rowling Comes Out Against Legalized Assisted Suicide
I have always believed that liberals should be leading opponents of assisted suicide. After all, two of the core tenets of liberalism are (supposed to be) protecting vulnerable people from exploitation and promoting equality among all people. But other than disability-rights activists, most liberals tend to support legalization based on “choice.” Mega author J. K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, is definitely a political liberal.
Nature Right Pushes Neo-Pagan Mysticism
The “nature rights” movement is pushing environmentalism into the unscientific realm. Specifically, the movement promotes a neo-pagan mysticism — such as invoking Pachamama the Incan earth goddess (pictured at the top) — as a major basis for its advocacy. Such unscientific approaches have reached the highest levels of the ivory tower and have been invoked in medical and science journals.
Did Brian Kilmeade Actually Say That?
Homelessness is a crisis in our major cities. But we have to always remember that people who are homeless have equal intrinsic dignity as all other human beings. That is why I was appalled that — in a recent discussion about the atrocious murder of Iryna Zarutska by a mentally ill homeless man — Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade said that if the mentally ill homeless don’t accept hospitalization, they should be, well, killed. Yes. He actually said that.
California: Experiments on People with ‘Life-Shortening’ Conditions
This article is reprinted from National Review with the permission of the author. When assisted suicide/euthanasia is legalized, people who are eligible to be killed because they are seriously ill may become objectified by their societies. For example, they may be thought of as so many organ farms to be harvested after their lives are ended. Image Credit: Photographee.eu - Adobe Stock Such objectification of the sick can be infectious.
California Experiments with “Life-Shortening” Conditions
When assisted suicide/euthanasia is legalized, people who are eligible to be killed because they are seriously ill may become objectified by their societies. For example, they may be thought of as so many organ farms to be harvested after their lives are ended. Such objectification of the sick can be infectious.
Should We Put Mother Nature on the Board of Directors?
The question of whether nature should own stock is ridiculous on its face. But that doesn’t stop environmental radicals from furthering that cause. Indeed, at least one privately held company has put “nature” on its board of directors. Now, a leading New Zealand law firm, Parry Field — which represents nonprofit organizations — has published a paper urging that “nature” become an owner of companies. The author, one of the partners, named Steven Moe, goes wrong right off the bat.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Wesley
Contact Wesley, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack