By Wesley J. Smith I could have told you this would happen. A Dutch doctor who lethally injected a dementia patient, has been cleared of criminal charges. Euthanizing dementia patients isn’t against the law in Netherlands if the patient expressed a desire to die before losing competency. What made this particular case notable was that …
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By Wesley J. Smith Editor’s note. This appeared at First Things July 12, the day after Vincent Lambert was dehydrated to death. Vincent Lambert is dead. The forty-two-year-old Frenchman, who breathed his last yesterday in Reims, didn’t die by accident. It wasn’t “his time.” He died slowly, over nine days, by forced dehydration—a demise that …
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By Wesley J. Smith Colorado doctor Barbara Morris wants to assist her patient’s suicide. She works at Centura Health, a Catholic/Seventh Day Adventist-owned hospital that prohibits its employees from participating in assisted suicide, legal in Colorado. Morris sued to be allowed to participate in her patient’s suicide by doctor — which would not happen in …
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By Wesley J. Smith There was a day in the not-too-distant past when physicians were respected, even revered, as learned professionals. We understood that doctors followed a “higher calling.” Indeed, physicians were expected to adhere to a code of conduct—epitomized by the Hippocratic Oath’s venerable injunction, “do no harm.” Times have changed. The old hierarchies …
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By Wesley J. Smith Editor’s note. My family and I will be on our vacation through August 27. I will occasionally add new items but for the most part we will repost “the best of the best” — the stories our readers have told us they especially liked. Assisted suicide sure brings out the medical …
Continue reading "A Scourge of Death Doctors"
By Wesley J. Smith A Canadian man disabled by ALS didn’t want to die now. He wanted to be cared for at home so he could be with his son. Nope. The government’s socialized health-care system refused to pay for all the care he needed. But it sure paid to kill him by euthanasia. From …
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By Wesley J. Smith Assisted suicide has always been an issue of white privilege (to borrow a term I generally disfavor), promoted most actively by liberal, highly educated, and very well-off, Marin County types who are already so empowered in society that they need never fear being pushed out of the lifeboat or deprived from …
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By Wesley J. Smith Assisted suicide and euthanasia corrupt everything, including the suicide-prevention sector. Here’s an example out of Massachusetts. A bill has been filed to make suicide persuasion and facilitation a crime. From SD 2505 (my emphases): A person shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years …
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By Wesley J. Smith We live in an increasingly secular society. One consequence (among many) of this cultural shift has been an increasing rejection of the once uncontroversial belief that humans reside uniquely at the pinnacle of moral worth. Activist academics, purveyors of popular culture, and issue ideologues across a wide swath of movements—from bioethics, …
Continue reading "Every life has equal and incalculable moral value simply because we are human"
By Wesley J. Smith Back in 2004, the university-biotech complex and its camp followers in the media and Hollywood convinced California voters to borrow $3 Billion to establish the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Its purpose was to pay for embryonic stem-cell and human-cloning research over which the federal-government imposed funding restrictions. The campaign …
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By Wesley J. Smith The media abandoned unequivocal opposition to suicide long ago. Most publications editorially support legalizing assisted suicide, and the news sides — such as the New York Times and the Associated Press — have even gone so far as to run stories lauding suicide/euthanasia “parties,” at which people celebrate the life of …
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By Wesley J. Smith China has long been credibly accused of allowing a black market in organ sales, the kidneys, livers, etc. coming from murdered political prisoners such as the Falon Gong. Several years ago, China promised it would eliminate this dark harvest, but according to the China Tribunal — an independent investigative tribunal into …
Continue reading "China Strip Mines Political Prisoners for Their Organs"