Human Exceptionalism

Brave New World is rushing toward us at mach speed: Scientists have already created cloned human embryos; a Stanford biotechnologist may bioengineer a mouse to have a human brain; “designer babies” have already been created to provide stem cells for sick siblings. Some believe such research is leading us toward a veritable utopia: “By the end of the 21st Century,” Read More ›

“By the end of the 21st century,” writes Reason magazine science editor Ronald Bailey in his book “Liberation Biology,” “the typical American may attend a family reunion in which five generations are playing together. And great-great-great grandma, at 150 years old, will be as vital … as her 30-year-old great-great grandson with whom she’s playing touch football.” UCLA futurist Gregory Read More ›

Advocates of assisted suicide label hastened death a “compassionate choice.” But such gooey euphemisms seek to hide the harsh truth: Assisted suicide isn’t about caring: It is about the intentional ending of human life – an act barred by the Hippocratic Oath for more than 2000 years. We are told that assisted suicide would be restricted to cases of unbearable Read More ›

The fury of radical animal liberationists is growing, leading them to acts of brazen lawlessness and flagrant vigilantism. In the United Kingdom, a farm family that raised guinea pigs for medical testing was subjected to years of personal threats and property vandalism by animal liberationists. The family had courageously refused to be intimidated, but when the liberationists robbed the grave Read More ›

Leon Kass has stepped down as chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics. On one level, I am happy for Kass. For four years he has broiled in the pressure cooker of Washington politics, subjected to vituperation and vicious calumny from the bioethics and science establishments for his heterodox (to them) defense of the intrinsic dignity and importance of human Read More ›

We have heard it stated so often it has become a media mantra: Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) offer the greatest hope for cures; adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells have far less potential; the Bush administration’s embryonic stem cell funding restrictions have caused America to fall behind in the great international race to develop effective ESC treatments. Baloney, baloney, Read More ›

This article, published by WorldNetDaily, quotes Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith: Bioethics specialist Wesley J. Smith, writing in Lifesite.com, expressed enthusiasm about the apparent breakthrough, but also urged caution. “We have to be cautious,” said Smith, a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. “One patient does Read More ›

A WASHINGTON MAN died recently from internal injuries he sustained while having sex with a horse. After his body was dropped off at a hospital, police discovered that out-of-towners had rented a rural farm and then made local animals available for use in bestiality. Yes, video taping was involved. This disgusting story should have had a quick ending with the Read More ›

Click here to read Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith and Case Western Reserve University Associate Professor Jonathan Adler debate the legality of assisted suicide.

Animal-rights and animal-liberation advocacy has, over the years, become a radical and subversive enterprise. To see this phenomenon at work, one need look no further than the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the movement’s leading advocacy group. PETA’s latest campaign blitz, the “Animal Liberation Project” (ALP), is a case in point, blending moral relativism with extremist rhetoric.

It comes on the heels of PETA’s pro-vegetarian “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign, which claimed that the worst crimes of the Shoah were morally equivalent to eating meat and wearing leather; that one set off a firestorm of criticism and condemnation from Jewish groups and the media. It took two years, but PETA leader Ingrid Newkirk finally issued a non-apology apology for the indefensible comparison.

But, of course, defend she did; PETA hadn’t changed its mind about the campaign’s essential message. Enter ALP, which again asserts a moral equivalency between using animals and some of history’s worst crimes. ALP’s overarching theme is: “We are all animals.” While this is biologically true, PETA isn’t merely stating a scientific fact. Rather, by the statement PETA means that humans and animals are moral equals. Hence, everything we do with and to animals should be judged morally as if the same things were being done to people.