Human Exceptionalism

Are you happy “merely” being human? Or do you wish your life could somehow be made into something . . . more? If you discovered a risky drug that would grant you a superhuman power—such as the capacity to heal the sick, kill enemies, or become invisible—would you take the shot? And if you developed a supernatural ability, would you Read More ›

Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick has agreed to plead guilty to participating in a dog fighting/gambling ring, almost certainly ending his career. Vick’s indictment was the scandal of the summer — and for good reason: In a throwback to the brutality of the Roman crowd, Vick and his co-conspirators allegedly bred pit bulls to tear one another apart for Read More ›

Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick pleaded guilty to participating in a dog fighting/gambling ring, almost certainly ending his NFL career. Vick’s indictment was the scandal of the summer – and for good reason: In a throwback to the brutality of the Roman arena, in which wild animals were forced to fight and kill each other to the frenzy of Read More ›

Do animals have rights? Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith investigates this issue in light of the dog fighting scandal surrounding football star Michael Vick. Smith argues that the outrage generated by Vick’s alleged actions stems not from any violation of animal rights, but from the violation of his own humanity. Smith reasons that humans are the only conscious organisms in the Read More ›

The arrest of football great Michael Vick for allegedly participating in a dog fighting/gambling ring has shocked the country. The charges are horrendous: In a throwback to the brutality of the Roman arena in which wild animals were forced to fight and kill each other to the frenzy of the crowd, Vick and his co-conspirators, according to authorities, bred pit Read More ›

This article, published by CNS News, quotes Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith: “Violence stems from the ideology of the animal liberation or animal rights movement,” said Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank. The rest of the article can be found here.

In this installment of BNB, Wesley J. Smith discusses the ongoing assault on human exceptionalism. Exceptionalism holds that human life is intrinsically unique and valuable, different from life as experienced by other organisms. Rising to challenge this idea is an array of figures including philosophers, academics, environmentalists, and materialists. Such people seek to erode any separation between humans and other Read More ›

Tearing humans off the pedestal of exceptionalism is all the rage today among academics, philosophers, and other assorted members of the intelligentsia. The war against unique human worth—of which many remain unaware—is being mounted on many fronts: “Personhood Theory” in bioethics claims that granting humans unique moral status based simply on being human is “speciesism,” and hence membership in the Read More ›

Should laws against assisted suicide be rescinded as “paternalistic?” Should assisted suicide be transformed from what is now a crime (in most places) into a sacred “right to die”? Should assisted suicide be redefined from a form of homicide into a legitimate “medical treatment” readily available to all persistently suffering people, including to the mentally ill? According to Brown University Read More ›