By Wesley J. Smith New Jersey recently became one of the seven states (plus the District of Columbia) to legalize assisted suicide by statute. In effect, New Jersey sanctions suicide for some residents through its public policy. Now, with COVID-19, New Jersey officials are worried about a spike in suicide caused by the shutdown, so for …
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By Wesley J. Smith Editor’s note. When we choose what story to repost that appeared in NRL News Today exactly one year prior, the #1 priority is that the story remains relevant. The battle—and it is tenacious, hand-to-hand combat—to protect freedom of conscience is even tougher today than May 15, 2019. The anti-life forces are …
Continue reading "Medical Conscience for Me, but Not for Thee"
By Wesley J. Smith If Joe Biden is elected president in November, oncologist and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, the former vice president’s chief campaign health-care adviser, will almost certainly control the new administration’s health policies, perhaps even as secretary of health and human services. That is bad news. Emanuel was a prime architect of the Affordable Care …
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By Wesley J. Smith I was disappointed in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s dour statement that “we will never be the same” and we that we won’t “get back to normal. There will be a new normal.” I understand he is dealing with excruciating issues of life and death, but given the history of the United States, such pessimism …
Continue reading "COVID-19 Adult Stem-Cell Trials"
Consider the creeping normalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Western societies in recent decades. We should be disturbed. By Wesley J. Smith death is in the air. No, I am not referring to the coronavirus. The pathogen I mean is a cultural pandemic, the embrace of doctor-prescribed suicide and of administered homicide as acceptable responses …
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By Wesley J. Smith The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that doctors could legally carry out euthanasia on people with advanced dementia who had earlier put their wishes in writing even if they could no longer confirm them because of their illness. The ruling is a landmark in Dutch euthanasia legislation which up to now had required patients …
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By Wesley J. Smith The National Center for Health Statistics has published an alarming report about the increasing suicide rate — which has been increasing at 2 percent per year since 2006. From the report (my emphasis): This report highlights trends in suicide rates from 1999 through 2018. During this period, the age-adjusted suicide rate increased 35%, …
Continue reading "We Need to Worry about Suicide Contagion, Too"
Consider the creeping normalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Western societies in recent decades. We should be disturbed. By Wesley J. Smith DEATH is in the air. No, I am not referring to the coronavirus. The pathogen I mean is a cultural pandemic, the embrace of doctor-prescribed suicide and of administered homicide as acceptable …
Continue reading "The Jack Kevorkian Plague"
How can a doctor be imprisoned for obeying the Hippocratic Oath? Lastra is a licensed professional and the court decided that refusing to abort constituted a “failure to comply with the duties of a public official”…
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By Wesley J. Smith In a world of bioethicists who primarily eschew the sanctity/equality of life ethic, Fordham University’s Charles Camosy is a refreshing ethicist worthy of the title. Of late, he has been warning against the dangers of the quality of life ethic that so many of his peers promote. Most visibly, he recently appeared on Tucker Carlson’s interview …
Continue reading "No to ‘Quality of Life’ Coronavirus Health-care Rationing"
By Wesley J. Smith Joe Biden has announced the creation of a “Public Health Advisory Committee,” consisting of Democratic experts to advise him about how to best grapple with the coronavirus during the campaign. Okay. Good public-health practices are worthy goals for any candidate. But I don’t think receiving such information requires the naming of …
Continue reading "Biden’s Coronavirus Adviser Wants to Die at 75"
BY Wesley J. Smith Dedicated psychiatrists are often the only defense between patients with serious mental illness and suicide. But legalizing euthanasia shifts thinking 180 degrees because suicide has been redefined as health care and a right. Hence, protections — such as barring administered death to the mentally ill — soon come to be seen …
Continue reading "Canada Psychiatrists: Refusing Euthanasia for Mentally Ill Is ‘Discrimination’"