National Journal Names Discovery Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith One of Bioethics Expert Thinkers
SEATTLE, MAY 22 — Discovery Institute senior fellow Wesley J. Smith today was named by the National Journal as one of the top ten expert thinkers in bioengineering in the nation, because of his work on bioethics.
According to the May 22 “Issues and Answers” issue of National Journal: “Experts are the people the politicians will call on when they get serious about addressing an important public policy issue.”
Smith told National Journal that the major issue in bioengineering is: “whether scientists will serve society or dominate it. Scientists and their allied bioethicists will redefine what it is to be human, he said, and will exclude stricken people whose lives they deem not worth living. Such redefinition ‘is a matter of power, and people who don’t have value will get it in the neck.'”
Smith is the author of 11 books including Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America and Forced Exit. Culture of Death was awarded Best Health Book of the Year at the 2001 Independent Publishers Awards. He is a regular contributor to The Weekly Standard and National Review and has appeared on such television programs as CNN Crossfire, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Nightline.
His next book, Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, an exploration of the science, morality, and business aspects of human cloning and other biotechnologies, will be published by Encounter Books in the fall of 2004.
Others on the bioengineering list of experts include actor/activist Christopher Reeve; James Battey, Chairman, Stem-Cell Task Force, National Institutes of Health; Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics; and, Leon Kass, Chairman, President’s Council on Bioethics.
In addition to his work with Discovery Institute, Smith also is an attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. He is an international lecturer and public speaker, appearing at political, university, medical, legal, bioethics, and community gatherings across the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and Australia.