Each year, Gerber, the baby food manufacturer, holds a “cute baby” photo contest, the winner of which receives a $50,000 cash prize and may appear as a “spokesbaby” to advertise the company’s products. Media coverage of the contest is usually limited to sweet human-interest … » Go
I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. —The … » Go
We’ve seen it happen: A new assault on the sanctity of human life appears—say, infanticide being promoted in a major bioethics journal, or officials in Iceland bragging that no children with Down syndrome are born there, thanks to prenatal genetic screening—and some horrified opponents … » Go
Joseph Fletcher (1905–1991) was one the most influential philosophers and bioethicists of the twentieth century. His advocacy blazed the path for many of the radical social transitions we are experiencing today. He gained fame as the prime proponent of “situational ethics,” popularly known as … » Go
President Donald J. Trump could care less about biotechnology. How else to explain his total failure to engage the most important and portentous biotechnological issues of our day? In fact, the Trump administration’s policy void on these issues is so complete the president hasn’t even taken the … » Go
Kiss today goodbye And point me toward tomorrow. We did what we had to do. Won’t forget, can’t regret What I did for love. —A Chorus Line Imagine the pain. Imagine the sleepless nights. One minute you are leading an ordinary life. Then something awful happens to someone you love—a heart … » Go
As the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare withered on the vine, the self-described socialist senator from Vermont rushed to fill the political vacuum. Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All Act of 2017 is a single-payer proposal that shamelessly attempts to harness the popularity of … » Go
We live in metaphysically desolate times. An increasing number of us—particularly among the millennial generation—now reject Christianity and other non-materialistic faiths as superstitious relics, vestiges of a time before science uncovered the truth about existence. The less polite even mock … » Go
As I wrote in The War on Humans, environmentalism has become increasingly anti-human, both in proposed policies–such as those that would reduce economic vitality and thwart human thriving–and the goal of reducing human population. The latter goal would require … » Go
Like everyone else, I have been pondering the recent “senseless” slaughters in places as disparate as Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and Sutherland Springs—atrocities in which lone sociopathic gunmen icily annihilated their fellow human beings, including babies and children, with all the moral … » Go
If you have enough money, need organ-transplant surgery, and are so immoral you are willing for a stranger to be killed so you can have their organs, you can travel to China and buy a liver, heart, or kidney. And you only have to wait maybe a month, you know, the time it takes to find a … » Go
We live in profoundly anti-human times. Progressive cultural movements across a broad array of issues, from bioethics to environmentalism, seek to push us off the pedestal of unique value in both culture and public policy. Many academics, biological scientists, and evolutionary philosophers … » Go
While most people roll their eyes and laugh that “it can never happen here,” the “nature rights” movement is increasing in visibility and establishment acceptance. The journal Science has favored the concept. So too has liberal activist Jim Hightower. Now, that bastion of … » Go
Assisted suicide and euthanasia corrupt everything, including the suicide-prevention sector. Here’s an example out of Massachusetts. A bill has been filed to make suicide persuasion and facilitation a crime. From SD 2505 (my emphases): A person shall be punished by imprisonment in the state … » Go
Environmentalism is growing increasingly anti-capitalist and anti-human. Once the aim was directed primarily at preventing and cleaning up pollution, preserving ecosystems and protecting wild places. These days, the louder voices within the movement seem more intent on invoking global warming … » Go
Genetic engineering is among the most powerful human technologies ever invented. It holds great hope for everything from medical uses to cleaning up the environment. But it could also unleash a deadly pandemic or lead to a “new eugenics” with very sharp teeth. The last time we witnessed … » Go
Finally! After voters in Toledo granted “rights” to Lake Erie — in a special election, it should be noted, with minuscule turnout — Ohio has outlawed the enforcement of “nature rights” in a budget bill signed by the governor. From the legislation: Sec. 2305.011… (B) Nature or … » Go
Back in 2004, the university-biotech complex and its camp followers in the media and Hollywood convinced California voters to borrow $3 billion to establish the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Its purpose was to pay for embryonic stem-cell and human-cloning research over … » Go
The media abandoned unequivocal opposition to suicide long ago. Most publications editorially support legalizing assisted suicide, and on the news side — as at the New York Times and the Associated Press — they have even gone so far as to run stories lauding suicide/euthanasia … » Go
“The scientists” claim that they can be trusted to “self-regulate” their efforts to create new biotechnologies. Baloney. Despite their mooing about adhering to ethical and safety protocols, two genetically altered babies have already been born, children who may have a higher mortality … » Go
