_{Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis}

Wesley J. Smith

Woman doctor with stethoscope takes an oath at the beach, symbolizing medical commitment in serene seascape.

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 29, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Abortion, Assisted Suicide, Conscientious objection, Ezekiel Emanuel, Julian Savulescu, Physicians}

Attacks on Medical Conscience: Forcing Doctors to Take Human Life

_{As more states legalize assisted suicide and abortion through the ninth month, the medical conscience issue is again bubbling to the surface} _{Wesley J. Smith
July 29, 2025

5

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

The movement to quash medical conscience has been ongoing for many years and it has become politically partisan.

Medical professional carefully carries an organ transplant container down a hospital corridor, hoping to give someone a second chance at life

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Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 27, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Dead donor rule, Organ procurement organizations (OPO), Organ transplantation, Pittsburgh Protocol}

Organ-Procurement Lapses Threaten Trust in Transplant Medicine

_{Something appears to have gone badly off the rails in the field of procuring organs after heart death} _{Wesley J. Smith
July 27, 2025

6

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

The push for organs has apparently grown so intense that corners may be being cut, endangering still-living patients and treating them as so many organ farms.

Suicide and support

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 16, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, Compassion and Choices group, Exit International, Jean-Jacques Bise, Switzerland}

Swiss Death Clinics Celebrated By Suicide Pushers

_{One Swiss clinic even “prioritizes people who are elderly but not seriously ill”} _{Wesley J. Smith
July 16, 2025

2

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

Geriatric suicides used to be considered a tragedy. But these days, increasingly, they are celebrated.

Medical and puberty blockers symbol. Medical uniform, white card with words 'puberty blockers'. Beautiful white background. Copy space. Medical and puberty blockers concept.

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 15, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Peer Review

Tagged
New England Journal of Medicine, Puberty blockers, Scott Skinner-Thompson}

Journal Article Ignores Medical Objections to Puberty Blockers

_{Allowing an author to ignorecontrary evidence and increasing doubts about puberty blockers, etc., undermines New England Journal of Medicine’s purpose in being} _{Wesley J. Smith
July 15, 2025

4

Medicine and Health, Peer Review}

It’s disingenuous not to at least acknowledge the scientific doubts about treating youthful gender dysphoria that not only persist but are growing.

Greek god Gaia illustration, Gaia, the God is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 10, 2025

Categorized
Environment, Law, Technology

Tagged
Gaia theory, Nature rights activism, Public Humanities journal}

Academia Embraces the Unscientific Religion of ‘Nature Rights’

_{Cambridge University Press’s call for boosting the rights of nature is straight out of Gaia theory that holds that the Earth is a living being. That is not a science-based premise} _{Wesley J. Smith
July 10, 2025

4

Environment, Law, Technology}

Most people still don’t take “nature rights” seriously because it is clearly irrational. But that’s a huge mistake. Their cause is accelerating.

Coma patient. Young woman with intravenous drip in hospital bed

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 19, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Adriana Smith, April Newkirk, brain death}

Update: Brain-Dead Mother’s Baby Is Born

_{I was surprised at the controversy my plea for the baby’s life generated. I heard the trite “Handmaid’s Tale” trope more than once} _{Wesley J. Smith
June 19, 2025

3

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

If Adriana’s body had been removed from life support, there’d have been two deaths. Can’t we celebrate that, even as we mourn the mother who was lost?

nurse showing something to elderly man on wheelchair..

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 8, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Hospice movement, Ira Byock}

As Euthanasia Looms, How to Save the Hospice Movement

_{Often now people approach me after a speech or call in on talk radio to tell me that they do not trust hospice to properly care for their loved ones.} _{Wesley J. Smith
June 8, 2025

4

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

Leading palliative care doctor Ira Byock offers four proposals to address the current problems with hospice care.

Vial with the word euthanasia on it.

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 8, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Euthanasia in Canada, Takouhi Demirdjian-Petro, United Church of Canada}

The Callous Cruelty of Canadian Euthanasia Illustrated

_{A death doctor was willing to kill Paula, despite knowing that many of her problems were social} _{Wesley J. Smith
June 8, 2025

6

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

A church minister quieted her fears and told her that she should “just let go of this empty, empty world.”

Saint Catherine's Monastery. Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai. Bell tower at Saint Catherine's Monastery. The monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 1, 2025

Categorized
Politics, Religion

Tagged
Egypt, Hagia Sophia, St. Catherine’s Monastery, Turkey}

Egypt To Expropriate Historic St. Catherine’s Monastery?

_{The fate of St. Catherine’s as a symbol is of greater importance than the fate of this particular holy site and its resident monks} _{Wesley J. Smith
June 1, 2025

4

Politics, Religion}

Religious freedom includes the right to maintain sacred sites as well as to worship freely.

Closeup of paragraph symbol with vaccination injection syringe - euthanasia assisted suicide dying concept

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 29, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, France, Stéphane Gemmani}

France: Assisted Suicide on the March

_{Right-to-die campaigners have welcomed the law, though describing it as relatively modest in scope.} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 29, 2025

2

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

“It’s a foot in the door, which will be important for what comes next,” said Stéphane Gemmani of the ADMD association.

hyperrealistic digital sculpture of gaia as a living mountain range with rivers for veins and forests for hair emerging from a swirling cosmic mist

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 23, 2025

Categorized
Environment, Politics

Tagged
For Nature program, National Geographic Society, Rights of Nature movement}

National Geographic Society to Fund ‘Nature Rights’ Advocacy

_{Geological features such as rivers, glaciers, waves, and even a mountain have already been granted “rights.”} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 23, 2025

4

Environment, Politics}

“Nature rights” are unnecessary for proper environmental protection. The point is to throttle human activities.

Human Skull Desertification Climate Change Drought Death Arid Land Environmental Crisis

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 21, 2025

Categorized
Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Anti-humanism, Anti-natalism, David Attenborough, David Suzuki, Guy Edward Bartkus, Les Knight, Noah (film 2014), Paul Watson}

IVF Clinic Bomber Infected by Anti-Humanism

_{According to media reports, Bartkus, who died at the scene, was a “‘pro-mortalist’ (believing death is preferable to living) or an ‘anti-natalist’ (believing no more human beings should be born).”} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 21, 2025

4

Human exceptionalism}

Culturally accepted human-phobia can be dangerous. There are mentally unbalanced people out there who don’t see misanthropy as merely an intellectual mind game.

Syringe with anaesthetic drug - Propofol, ready for infusion.

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 15, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Law, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, L. S. Dugdale, New York state}

The Lies in New York’s Assisted Suicide Bill

_{New York is close to passing a bill to legalize assisted suicide. Having passed the assembly, it is currently being considered in the senate} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 15, 2025

5

Ethics, Law, Medicine and Health}

Falsifying death certificates, for example, prevents transparency. Investigators will be unable to access the information they need to conduct independent studies.

Bioethics And The Law

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Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 12, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health, Politics}

Bioethics: Just Another Social-Justice Political Movement Now?

_{A new survey shows how the movement has swung toward pushing woke “social justice” initiatives as its primary purpose} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 12, 2025

4

Ethics, Medicine and Health, Politics}

Respondents overwhelmingly wanted an even more monolithic approach to social justice through what could be argued as an indoctrinating approach to education.

Black dominoes chain on table background

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 9, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, Estonia, Germany, Medical assistance in dying (MAiD)}

Estonia’s Supreme Court Declares a Right to Suicide

_{At least these rulings candidly cut through the toxic smoke so often generated by assisted-suicide advocates} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 9, 2025

3

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

Such rulings demonstrate that the real goal/destination is a right to death by any competent person for any cause and assisted by anyone.

hands holiding red heart with kidney, world kidney day, organ donor day

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 7, 2025

Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
End Kidney Deaths Act, Iran, Kidney donation risks, Kidney donors, Sally Satel}

Human Kidney Suppliers Should Be Donors, Not Vendors

_{The government would be, essentially, paying people to harm themselves. People who are already disadvantaged would be most likely to volunteer} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 7, 2025

6

Business and Finance, Ethics, Medicine and Health}

There are ample reasons why only one country in the world — Iran — allows kidney-selling. Not everything should be a sellable product.

eccentric mad scientist set against a solid green felt background, showcasing their quirky personality and wild inventions. Ideal for promoting creativity, science events, or educational materials

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 5, 2025

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Science

Tagged
Edward Martin Jr., Eric Rubin, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet}

The Wrong Tool to Fix Woke Science Journals

_{The government has no business pressuring medical journals about their content — even if their bias is ruining historic reputations} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 5, 2025

2

Censorship, Media, Science}

The First Amendment applies here. The editors and publishers have every right to destroy their journals’ reputations without fear of being investigated.

little bald girl after chemotherapy session with her caring and supportive brother in a hospital room, supporting family, hope and recovery from cancer

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 4, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
David N. Korones, Futile care concept, Hope and illness, Kristin M. Collier, Zoha (patient)}

A Compassionate Doctor Keeps Hope Alive

_{As this story shows, sometimes the hope is not for a cure so much as for assurance that the patient has not been abandoned} _{Wesley J. Smith
May 4, 2025

5

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

There are signs of a needed pushback against a bioethics-driven “just check all the boxes” approach to terminal care where the need for hope is brushed aside.

alien planet landscape, beautiful forest the surface of an exoplanet

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
April 26, 2025

Categorized
Extraterrestrial life, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Matt Ridley}

Why Life Beyond Earth Would Prove Human Exceptionalism

_{A science writer thinks that finding life on other planets in our galaxy would somehow put a dent in our “self-importance”} _{Wesley J. Smith
April 26, 2025

3

Extraterrestrial life, Human exceptionalism}

Actually, human minds created sophisticated instruments that project our understanding light years away, using the scientific method that we created.

Beauty injection concept. Syringe with violet liquid for hypodermic injection.

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post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
April 24, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, New Jersey, Phil Murphy, suicide, Suicide prevention}

New Jersey Program Aims to Prevent Suicide— Just Not All Suicides

_{In New Jersey, the self-terminations of people with a prognosis of six months or less ceases to be “suicide” when facilitated by a doctor} _{Wesley J. Smith
April 24, 2025

3

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

Yet terminally ill patients opt for assisted suicide typically because of issues such as fears of burdening family, losing dignity, not untreatable pain.