Wesley J. Smith | Page 5 | Discovery Institute

Silhouettes of crude oil pumps at sunset

^{Wesley J. Smith
June 24, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Medical Journal Editorial Urges Lawfare Against Oil Companies

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 24, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

A Perspectives editorial penned by law professors in the New England Journal of Medicine enters the fray again, this time, advocating lawfare by governments against fossil fuel industries. The authors take heart from a legal settlement between a Louisiana parish and oil companies. But this case is not the same thing at all as paying damages for climate change. Read More ›

An elderly man in bed in close-up. Elderly care, hospice care. Long-term care for the elderly, rehabilitation, physical therapy

^{Wesley J. Smith
June 18, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Bill Would Require Federal Funds to Pay for Assisted Suicide

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 18, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

The use of federal funds to cover any costs associated with assisted suicide is currently against the law based on a bill signed in 1997 by President Bill Clinton after Oregon's lethal law went into effect. Now, a new bill has been introduced to force Medicare, the VA, and the federal share of Medicaid to cover expenses associated with assisted suicide. Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
June 17, 2024}

Steven J. Buri on the Pro-Human Mission of the Discovery Institute

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 17, 2024}

For the last Humanize episode of the season, I thought it would be edifying to explore how the Discovery Institute's institutional programs dovetail with the work of the Center on Human Exceptionalism. Who better to ask than our intrepid president, Steven J. Buri? Read More ›

Rear view of sad and depressed female patient sitting on wheelchair with saline bottle in hospital room looking towards curtains on window

^{Wesley J. Smith
June 6, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Euthanize Me, or I’ll Starve Myself to Death

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 6, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

In Canada, an autistic 27-year-old suicidal woman known as M.V. — whose judicially approved euthanasia was delayed until at least October by her father's claim that she does not qualify — is now starving herself to emotionally blackmail the court into allowing her to be killed expeditiously. Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
June 3, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

‘Tobacco-Free Generation’ Establishes Age-Based Ban on Sale of Tobacco — to Adults

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 3, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

I don't smoke, but I am wary of efforts to prevent other people from so doing. Now, blue cities — and soon states, most likely — have hit upon a way to ban smoking known as "Tobacco Free Generation" (TFG). Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
May 24, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Too Many Climate Scientists Confuse ‘Science’ with Activism

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 24, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Remember when a scientist admitted to removing nuance from a climate-change study because he believed that Nature would not publish it if he did not strictly follow the favored narrative of human-caused climate catastrophe? And now — perhaps in a reaction to that piece — Nature has published a cogent warning that too many scientists in the climate-change sector conflate "climate science" with "climate activism." Read More ›

Surgery, medical and a team of doctors in an operating room at the hospital for a medical procedure from patient pov. Face, mask and teamwork with a group of medicine professionals in an operation.

^{Wesley J. Smith
May 15, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

No, Doctors Shouldn’t Make Treatment Decisions for Incompetent Patients

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 15, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Cardiologist and New York Times columnist Sandeep Jauhar has published a piece advocating that doctors and bioethicists be empowered to force treatment on some patients. He writes in the context of wanting to compel hospitalization on a schizophrenic patient with serious heart problems. From "Doctors Need a Better Way to Treat Patients Without Their Consent:" Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
May 13, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Colorado Town Learns the Harm Caused by Granting Rights to Nature

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 13, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

The nature-rights movement isn't about conservation or responsible husbanding of the natural world. Rather, it seeks to handcuff human thriving by preventing most uses of our natural resources. But it sounds soooo nice, doesn't it? Well, the Colorado town of Nederland has learned the hard way that granting "rights" to waterways impedes all kinds of beneficial projects. Read More ›

Close-up of a petri dish in a lab setting containing a developing piece of lab-grown meat with a microscope in the background highlighting the cellular structure and the process of culturing meat

^{Wesley J. Smith
May 10, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

DeSantis Wrong to Criminalize Lab-Grown Meat

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 10, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that makes the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat (made from meat cells) in Florida a misdemeanor. I agree with DeSantis that our would-be woke overlords want to destroy animal agriculture internationally. But freedom is the solution to those threats, not neo-Luddism. Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
May 6, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Again with the ‘Plants Are Intelligent’ Nonsense

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 6, 2024
Human Exceptionalism}

Periodically, the mainstream media focus on advocacy for the idea that plants are intelligent and/or moral beings. For example, the New York Times ran a column some years back asserting that peas are persons. Why? Pea plants release chemicals in the soil that alert other pea plants of drought conditions. Read More ›