August 2011

Mercy Killing to Prevent Child Abuse

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Society is oozing “compassion” as a reason to kill these days. Self starvation is being promoted in the NYT. Assisted suicide is treated by many commentators and advocates as a necessity. And now a mother who killed her healty 8-year-old says she was justified in […]

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Immortality Would Not Be Pretty

This season’s Torchwood, which was once fun science fiction — a spinoff of Dr. Who — has this season, become great science fiction. Shades of Death Takes a Holiday, the plot line has human death suddenly stopping, beginning with a child sexual predator/killer who survives his execution — played with magnificent smarminess by Bill Pullman, […]

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No One Dies Alone

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC How refreshing. The media so often focus on doctor-prescribed death advocates and social outlaws like Kevorkian, that people who do really good, compassionate, and important work with people who are dying rarely receive their due. That is why I am very happy to see a […]

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Doctors’ Duty is to Patients, Not “Society”

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Increasingly the medical intelligentsia are pushing a dual mandate on physicians in the name of cutting costs — one to patients and one to society — and when they conflict, many want the individual’s needs to be subsumed to the collective. This attempt to redefine […]

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Assisted Living Facilities Should Not be Forced to Allow Self Starvation Suicide

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The assisted suicide movement teaches people how to commit suicide by self starvation. To be clear, I am not talking about when people stop eating as a natural part of the natural dying process. That isn’t suicide. But rather, refusing food and water, not because […]

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“Don’t Be Evil” Google Fined in On-Line Illegal Pharmacy Racket

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Google’s business slogan was once, “Don’t be evil,” which the company dropped in 2009. Perhaps they should have kept it. Now, Google is paying a $500 million fine for knowingly allowing on-line pharmacies that illegally sell drugs without a prescription to advertise on the companies […]

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Euthanasia Pushes Belgium Into Abyss

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The Netherlands used to be the heart of euthanasia darkness. It is still dark, but the culture of death crown has passed to Belgium, which not only legalized doctor-injected killing, but has enthusiastically embraced euthanasia’s logical corollaries. And now, we find that the number of […]

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Utilitarian Moral Views Linked to Psychopathology!

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC This is funny. How often do we hear about studies claiming to demonstrate that liberals are smarter than conservatives, or conservatives live in a world dominated by fear: You know the drill. Well now a study has come out stating that those who believe that […]

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A Priest’s Conscientious Objection to the Dutch Culture of Death

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC So, a Dutch priest has refused to conduct the funeral of a person who died by euthanasia. His choice, right? No. An uproar has ensued. From the story: A priest in the parish of Liempde in North Brabant refused to conduct the funeral of a […]

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Rejecting “Right and Wrong” A Prescription for Allowing Great Evil

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Bioethicist Joel Marks comments on his loss of religious belief and how it led to his eschewing the very concept of “right” and “wrong.” It is an interesting read for me because it seems his “anti epiphany” flowed directly both from his rejection of God, […]

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VP Biden Okay with China Tyrannical One Child Policy

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC China’s infamous one child policy has resulted in female infanticide, forced abortion, sex selection abortion, forced sterilization, and eugenics — resulting in a terrible and potentially destabilizing imbalance between males and females. But that tyranny is apparently A-OK with our intrepid vice president. From his […]

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BC Court Rejects “Farewell Foundation” Assisted Suicide Suit

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC An attempt to create a right to medical and non medical assisted suicide (in reality, all assisted suicides are non medical regardless of a doctor’s participation) has been thrown out of court. The “Farewell Foundation” (!!!–is it any wonder I can only shake my head […]

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Babies for Sale, Buyers Beware

Infertility can bring much heartache to couples desperately wanting a baby. Sadly, desperation opens the door for exploitation. Recently, two high-profile surrogacy attorneys, Theresa Erickson and Hilary Neiman, were caught exploiting surrogates, stealing from California taxpayers, and, most horrifically, selling babies. By Jennifer Lahl, CBC President It had already been a bad week for the […]

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No, 94-Year Old Zsa Zsa Would Not Be a “Mother”

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I know this is celebrity junk, but there is a kernel of importance here. Zsa Zsa Gabor is experiencing a difficult time with the kind of severe health problems and other vicissitudes of old age that one might expect in a woman of 94 years. […]

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In a “Choice Revolution” There Are No “Ethical Boundaries”

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I first heard the euphemistic term “selective reduction,” at a bioethics conference at which I was speaking in Banff, Alberta. I don’t remember the year, probably about a decade ago. I was speaking on assisted suicide, and as I awaited my turn, the speaker before […]

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Doctors Should Help Patients Choose, Not Manipulate to Force a Choice

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I am worried that we are going full circle around the bioethical issue informed consent. Where once, patients and families weren’t allowed to decide to stop heroic medical efforts — the dreaded “paternalism,” as it came to be called — today a neo paternalism movement […]

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“Moral Enhancement” to Feminize Hitler

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC This is funny, given our recent conversation about bioethicist Julian Savulescu’s support for “morally enhancing” people through drugs or implants. Apparently the UK Government plotted to do the same thing to Hitler by feminizing him with estrogen. From the Telegraph story: Now it has come […]

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Teaching Character, Not Neuro Enhancements, Key to Ethical Society

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC There has been a lot of justifiable worry expressed about moral decay in the wake of the UK riots. Apparently, the issue has also been on the minds of two among bioethics’ most notorious notable utilitarian practitioners, who are having a collegial disagreement about whether […]

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