May 2011

FBI Raids Suicide Bag Making Granny

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The FBI has raided the elderly woman in California who manufactures suicide bags and sells them for $60. From the KFOR story: Federal agents have raided the home of a 91-year-old woman who was selling do-it-yourself asphyxiation kits for $60 apiece in a mail-order business [...]

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France to Retain Strict Limits on ESCR

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC France is poised to maintain its very strict limitations on ESCR. From the Reuters story: France looked set on Thursday to maintain its curbs on human embryonic stem cell research after the conservative government fought off a parliamentary bid to liberalize the country’s bioethics law. [...]

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Modern Suicide Obsession A Troubling Sign of Nihilistic Times

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Suicide has become an obsession in certain quarters, and for a few suicide pushers, the basis for a personal cult. Australia’s Phillip Nitschke is one such cult leader. Nitschke is a blatant death-on-demander, who has for years pushed suicide machines, the “peaceful pill” suicide concoction [...]

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Human Subjects Research Ethics Protections Should Not be Dilluted

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Since the Nuremberg Code, protecting human subjects has always been thought more important than the speed in which research could be successfully brought into clinical application. But the world of medicine is growing increasingly utilitarian, and I have wondered how long that ethos would remain [...]

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Mandatory Testing for Down Syndrome Coming to France?

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Wouldn’t it be nice if the purpose of pushing prenatal testing for Down syndrome was to assure that fetuses testing positive would be later welcomed into the world in full preparation for the medical challenges that sometimes arise in babies with the condition? Of course, [...]

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The “Rapture” and the “Singularity” Have Much in Common

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Many jokes are being cracked about the prediction of doomsday Saturday, in which the “Rapture” is supposedly coming, heralding the end of days. From the CNN story: By now, you’ve probably heard of the religious group that’s predicting the end of the world starts this [...]

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More Than Raw Information Checklists Needed for Good Palliative Care

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC As I watch Compassion and Choices (once the Hemlock Society), it appears to have a couple of long term goals. First and foremost, of course, is the complete legalization of assisted suicide throughout the country, supposedly restricted to the terminally ill under guidelines. Then, the [...]

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Wesley J. Smith Talks Anti Euthanasia

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Two years ago I was invited by Priests for Life to present to its staff about euthanasia. After my speech, I did an interview with Fr. Pavone that has now been abridged and put on YouTube. So, I thought I would share it with you [...]

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Burying Hippocrates: Doctors Refuse to Treat Obese Women

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I wish I could say I was surprised. After decades of assertions that judgmentalism has no place in medicine, we have recently seen advocacy for a return of such judgmentalism aimed at a different cadre of patients — specifically, the obese and smokers — based [...]

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Embryonic Stem Cell Research versus the Rule of Law

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The embryonic stem cell research controversy is an ethics, not a science, debate. But it also involves the rule of law. Indeed, two recent court rulings—one in the United States and one in Europe—illustrate how the intense politics swirling around ESCR have the potential to [...]

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