assisted suicide

Dr. Death Rides Again

What do cicadas have in common with Jack Kevorkian? They share a cacophonous anniversary. In June, after 17 years, cicadas are expected to crawl from underground across the Midwest. These grim insects produce such a din that just one can overpower other sounds. Also in June, exactly 17 years after he first made international headlines for assisting the suicide of Read More ›

Tell the Truth about Kevorkian, Says Assisted Suicide Expert

Seattle –  “Jack Kevorkian’s decade-long assisted suicide campaign was never about compassion,” says bioethicist and assisted suicide expert Wesley J. Smith. “It was about Kevorkian’s obsession to engage in human vivisection.” Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, urges the media to report the story of Jack Read More ›

Dr. Death Returns

Jack Kevorkian is set to be released from prison today. Don’t expect Dr. Death to keep a low profile. He is already scheduled to appear on 60 Minutes, where he will be interviewed by euthanasia proponent Mike Wallace. After that, the rest of the media is likely to extravagantly tout Kevorkian as the compassionate, if eccentric, retired doctor who helped Read More ›

The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Should doctors or others be permitted to euthanize babies born with disabilities or assist the suicides of suffering people who want to die? During the first forty years of the twentieth century, fueled by the eugenics movement, the question was very much on the table. Then the Holocaust, in which euthanasia of the disabled played a central role, demonstrated the Read More ›

Testimony of Wesley J. Smith, JD, Before the California Senate Judiciary Committee

Testimony of Wesley J. Smith in Opposition to Legislation of Physician-Assisted Suicide in California (AB 651)Before the Senate Judiciary Committee “Informational Hearing,” June 20, 2006 Good afternoon. My name is Wesley J. Smith. I am an author and consumer advocate. I am a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, an attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia Read More ›

Does Assisted Suicide Cause Abuses?

This article, published by MonstersandCritics.com, mentions Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley Smith: Wesley J. Smith, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, a non-partisan think tank, echoed reports of high rates of euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands, and also noted that the country allows the euthanizing of the clinically depressed and infants with birth defects.

Testimony of Wesley J. Smith, JD, Before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, & Property Rights,

Lawyer, author, and bioethicist Wesley J. Smith testified May 25th to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights hearing on “The Consequences of Legalized Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia”. In his testimony, Smith told the Senators “that there is a proper public policy role for the federal government against assisted suicide, such Read More ›

Assisted Suicide is Bad Medicine

Former Gov. Booth Gardner, a Parkinson’s disease patient, hopes to place an initiative on the 2008 ballot to legalize assisted suicide in Washington. For the sake of Washington’s most weak and vulnerable people, he should reconsider. Assisted suicide can be spun to sound reasonable in theory, but once the real-world context in which assisted suicide would be carried out is Read More ›

The Dying Need TLC, Not Rulings

Tuesday’s 6-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court preventing the federal government from punishing doctors who prescribe federally controlled substances — narcotics — for suicide is being spun by euthanasia advocates as a big boost for their cause. Never mind that the ruling was very narrow and did not, as proponents claim, “uphold” Oregon’s law. And never mind that Justice Read More ›