Words matter. The terminology we employ not only reflects our values but helps to define them. Language is particularly important in bioethical debates, in which dehumanizing verbiage can distance us from our fellow human beings. When embryonic stem-cell research was in the news, we were told constantly by scientists and the media that an early embryo was “just a ball Read More ›
Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith takes aim at the arguments permeating our culture that devalue human life. Smith makes readers aware of the historic roots of the modern euthanasia movement, which today repeats arguments made by Nazis and proponents of eugenics tied back to 19th century social Darwinism. Smith, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, is extremely sensitive to the Read More ›
I recently gave a speech to a group of conservative senior citizens in California, arguing against assisted suicide, which is due to become legal there in June. Assisted suicide is not an issue that allows for fence-sitting, so although I expected (and received) a friendly reception for the most part, I knew that at least a few people would use Read More ›
Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder. —Leon Kass The ethics of medicine aren’t what they used to be. Sanctity of life? That’s so passé. The Hippocratic Oath? Fuggettaboudit! The modern healthcare system is expected to embrace properly utilitarian perspectives. Take euthanasia as just one example. Once society accepts that sick patients can be relieved of their suffering by being killed, Read More ›
Last year, the Canadian Supreme Court created a right to euthanasia and assisted suicide. To qualify for death, the court ruled unanimously, one must be a competent adult with a medically diagnosed condition causing “irremediable suffering”—a circumstance wholly determined by the patient and including “psychological suffering.” The decision went well beyond mere legalization. Indeed, the court manufactured an enforceable legal right for qualified patients Read More ›
The year 2015 will go down in history either as euthanasia’s high water mark before the ebb, or the time when the culture of death reached a tipping point and began an implacable march across Western Civilization. In October, the worst news came out of Canada, where that country’s Supreme Court trampled democratic deliberation by unanimously conjuring a charter right Read More ›
I was once approached by a member of the Hemlock Society after I had delivered a speech opposing assisted suicide. She asked me, “Mr. Smith, how do you envision your death?” I was a bit taken aback. Her whole approach seemed backwards to me. So, I replied, “Ma’am, I’m still trying to envision my life.” We in the West are often accused of Read More ›
Assisted-suicide advocacy is wrapped in euphemisms and false assurances. We are often told that medicalized killing will be “a last resort” reserved for the terminally ill, to be deployed only in the context of a long-term relationship with a caring doctor and, even then, strictly when there is no other way to alleviate suffering. But that’s just sales puffery. In Read More ›
The other day, I read a column in the National Post that made my stomach turn. It wasn’t the quality of the writing, which was quite good, but the content. The writer celebrated a recent Canadian Supreme Court ruling that determined lethal-injection termination is a charter right. As a result, euthanasia will soon be bureaucratized and normalized—made banal—in Canada: [S]ooner or later, death will become a Read More ›
Secularist threats against religious liberty are spreading like a stain. Thus, I was attracted immediately to Bruce Abramson’s Mosaic column, How Jews Can Help Christians Live as a Creative Minority. Abramson warns Christians that the space to practice their faith in the way they live is shrinking. Tell me something I don’t know, I thought. But my attention focused when Abramson (citing political scientist Peter Read More ›
Back in 1991, I received an invitation to a party. My elderly friend Frances wanted to die. Her plan, she said, was to hold a life celebration with her closest friends: We would hold her hand, kiss her cheek, and tell her how much she meant to us—as she expressed her love for us. Then she would take an overdose Read More ›