The Center for Bioethics and Culture

Pushing Experimentation Without Consent

by Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC

The New England Journal of Medicine–ever more radically utilitarian, in my view–has an article by prominent bioethicists urging that some less dangerous (comparative effectiveness research) medical experimentation be conducted on patients without our consent. The call arises in the context of Obamacare and medical technocrats seeking to transform our hospitals, clinics, and medical offices into ”learning health care systems,” in […]

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UK House of Commons Assisted Suicide Vote?

by Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC

I have traveled to the UK several times at the invitation of local activists to help them hold back the doctor-prescribed death tide. I have spoken thrice in the House of Commons building at the invitation of Labour MPs. I have spoken at a rally in Trafalgar Square. I have traveled from Manchester to Glasgow […]

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Pushing Polyamorous Genetic-Related Babies

The bioethics movement grows ever more radical. In the reproductive field, many activists promote a near-absolute right to have a baby, the kind of baby we want, via any means we desire. The UK’s John Harris is a major voice in utilitarian bioethics discourse, who believes that killing so-called human non persons is A-OK. He has now written in favor […]

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New Hampshire Euthanizes Assisted Suicide

The media and assisted suicide ideologues continually tell us that assisted suicide is unstoppable–the ultimate civil right. But America is not leaping off the cliff. True, Vermont became the third state to legalize last year, but Massachusetts voters rejected assisted suicide in 2012. Now, the New Hampshire legislature overwhelmingly euthanized “death with dignity.” From the […]

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Baby Farms

Today’s Daily Mail features an article titled “Wombs for Rent” and praises the surrogacy enterprise as a means of “transforming the lives of poverty-stricken women” in India. India has been a hotspot for commercial surrogacy since the early 2000s, particularly for couples from the UK, Australia, and the United States looking to avoid the costly […]

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Dorothy, We’re Not in Kansas Any More

Legislative battles are heating up across the United States on the issues of surrogacy contracts and the regulation of assisted reproduction. If we are truly concerned for the welfare of women and children, we must oppose such practices. On January 27, the Kansas State Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare conducted hearings on proposed […]

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Judge Says No to Hospital “Pull Plug” Demand

Futile Care Theory (medical futility) permits strangers–doctors, bioethicists, etc.–to overrule a patient’s advance directive or decisions by family to maintain a patient’s life. Boiled down to its essence, it is a sign over the hospital ICU stating, “We reserve the right to refuse service.” Texas law explicitly permits futile care. But apparently not Florida’s. A […]

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Putting Loved Ones Out of Our Misery

Emotional whipsawing is the lifeblood of euthanasia advocacy (pardon the pun). The movement thrives on often truly heart-wrenching stories to convince society to grant a general license allowing doctors or family members to help kill the disabled, despairing and dying. The Daily Mail carried such a report recently of a mother named Heather Pratten who smothered her son […]

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You Can’t Have Resuscitation!

Over in the UK, doctors tried to withhold resuscitation from a terminal cancer patient without discussing the matter with her or close family members. From the Daily News column by the victim, Sally Farmiloe: The instruction on my medical notes was unequivocal: if I fell unconscious, if my heart stopped beating, I should not be resuscitated. There […]

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Electric Stimulation Treats Severe Brain Damage

It appears there may be a way to improve the condition of patients in a persistent unconscious and minimally conscious states. From the New Scientist story: People who have been in a minimally conscious state for weeks or years have been temporarily roused using mild electrical stimulation. Soon after it was applied to their brains, […]

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