Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Wesley J. Smith Provides Update on Bioethics in the West on Issues, Etc.
Wesley J. Smith spoke with Todd Wilkens on the Issues, Etc.
Read →Tag
Bioethics
Content substantially addressing bioethics.
Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Pro-abortion judge suggests monkeys may have ‘human rights’
A judge known for pro-abortion rulings has raised controversy by suggesting that monkeys could be considered to have human rights. Pro-life advocates argue this stance further undermines the dignity of unborn human life.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Education efforts underway as Catholics navigate new Illinois physician-assisted suicide law
The End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act took effect in Illinois on September 12, allowing terminally ill patients to request prescription drugs to hasten death under specific conditions, prompting educational efforts by Catholic and pro-life groups to explain Church teachings and the law's implications. Jozef Zalot, a bioethicist with the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, are among those leading workshops and discussions to help clergy, laity, and families understand and respond to the new law while emphasizing compassionate accompaniment of the suffering.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Italian Doctors Under Threat of Criminal Prosecution for Refusing Participation in Assisted Suicide
The spread of assisted suicide and euthanasia legalization and the resulting pressure on doctors to participate despite many refusing. It highlights the use of coercion, including threats to doctors' professional licenses, as a method to ensure compliance, citing bioethics advocates like Ezekiel Emanuel, Julian Savulescu, and Peter Singer.
Read →Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
WSCC Life, Justice Peace. Webinar
Kallie Fell, Executive Director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, discusses the ethical, social, and human costs of the domestic surrogacy industry, highlighting its exploitation of women and commodification of children. The presentation calls for a reevaluation of policies and cultural attitudes that normalize surrogacy as a commercial transaction, challenging its portrayal as an act of compassion or empowerment.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Italian Doctors Under Threat of Criminal Prosecution for Refusing Participation in Assisted Suicide
The spread of assisted suicide and euthanasia legalization and highlights that most doctors refuse to participate in these practices. It also mentions that doctors who refuse participation face threats such as professional license revocation and coercion, with bioethics figures advocating for mandatory involvement despite moral opposition.
Read →Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
The Atlantic Dips Its Toes Into Surrogacy—and Misses the Point
Helen Lewis's article in The Atlantic explores surrogacy through a personal lens, highlighting troubling cases of surrogate exploitation but also including positive stories, ultimately failing to fully confront the systemic ethical issues involved. The article notably omits discussion of children's rights and the consequences of commercial surrogacy contracts, while framing opposition narrowly and not addressing broader concerns raised by diverse groups about the commodification of women's reproductive labor and children.
Read →Abortion Policy, Law & PoliticsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Forced destruction of embryos in the UK to protect sperm donor's autonomy
Cooke describes two British couples facing the destruction of stored embryos after sperm donors withdrew consent. She discusses their calls for legal change and frames the dispute around the moral status of embryos.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
SHOCK: 2-year-old toddler euthanized for disabilities
Cooke examines newly released details of a Dutch child-euthanasia case and the official review of the physicians' conduct. She argues that the reported circumstances raise concerns about disability and expanded eligibility for ending children's lives.
Read →Culture, Books & HistoryNEWS OR ANALYSIS
New York Times praises assisted suicide start-up as 'a one-stop shop'
Flanders criticizes a New York Times feature about a business providing assisted-death services after New York's legalization. She argues that commercial promotion of assisted death conflicts with suicide prevention and the purpose of healthcare.
Read →"World Suicide Prevention Day" Hypocrisy
Smith argues that suicide-prevention campaigns inconsistently exclude assisted suicide and euthanasia from their concerns. He contrasts that exclusion with prevention strategies promoted by the World Health Organization.
Read →B.C. euthanasia report finds hundreds of 'compliance concerns'
Tuns summarizes reporting on British Columbia's euthanasia oversight records, distinguishing documentation errors from more serious compliance concerns. The article presents critics' arguments for stronger independent oversight and more transparent reporting of enforcement actions.
Read →Alzheimer's Patients in the Crosshairs of VSED - Suicide by Self-Starvation
Drawing on his family's experience caring for relatives with Alzheimer's disease, Smith argues that dementia should not diminish a person's claim to compassionate care. This excerpt introduces his criticism of changing end-of-life attitudes and links readers to the complete column at The Epoch Times.
Read →Abortion Drugs & PracticesNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Women are taking the abortion pill well beyond the FDA limit
Flanders argues that remote access to abortion pills has enabled use later in pregnancy than the FDA-approved regimen. She discusses reported cases and criticizes the removal of in-person dispensing requirements.
Read →Abortion Policy, Law & PoliticsCOMMENTARY
Big Money to Be Made Assisting Suicides
Smith responds to coverage of a planned New York assisted-suicide clinic by warning about financial conflicts of interest. He argues that provider revenue and healthcare cost pressures could undermine protection of vulnerable patients.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Bioethical Advocacy to Compel Medical Help in Dehydration Suicides
A major article in the Journal of Health & Biomedical Law argues that doctors have an ethical obligation to inform patients about voluntary stop eating and drinking (VSED) as a means to hasten death and to provide palliative care to ease the suffering caused by this method, even if it conflicts with their moral conscience. The article also supports the use of advance directives to refuse nourishment during VSED and suggests that caregivers should deny food or drink if the patient becomes confused and requests it, framing this as a duty under the principle of non-abandonment.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
VSED is part of the assisted suicide agenda.
Gordon Friesen By Gordon Friesen President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition One of our great friends and allies, Wesley J. Smith, has recently written about the British Medical Association's newly minted policy and other bioethics articles which require doctors to collaborate with patients who are attempting to kill themselves through hunger and thirst. This practice is commonly euphemized as ‘voluntarily stopping eating and drinking’, which ungainly expression is then replaced with the more slick-sounding acronym ‘VSED’. However we must unfortunately note (as usual) that the most important fa
Read →Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
The World Is Waking Up to the Harms of Surrogacy
For more than two decades, the Center for Bioethics and Culture has warned that surrogacy is not simply another way to “build a family.” It is a practice that turns pregnancy into a service, places women’s bodies under contract, separates children from their birth mothers by design, and has created a global industry that profits […] The post The World Is Waking Up to the Harms of Surrogacy appeared first on The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network .
Read →Abortion Drugs & PracticesNEWS OR ANALYSIS
This Isn't Healthcare: How the abortion pill kills and injures
Flanders argues that abortion pills should not be described as healthcare because their intended outcome ends prenatal life. She also presents safety and regulatory claims that require medical and primary-source review before republication as factual guidance.
Read →Abortion Policy, Law & PoliticsINTERVIEW
Wesley J. Smith Defends Medical Conscience on Family First New Zealand
Smith joins Simon O'Connor to defend clinicians' freedom to decline participation in assisted suicide and euthanasia. The discussion also challenges a consumer-service model of medicine that treats professionals as obliged to provide any requested intervention.
Read →Abortion Policy, Law & PoliticsCOMMENTARY
More Bioethical Advocacy to Compel Medical Help in Self-Starvation Suicides
Smith criticizes proposals that would require clinicians to facilitate a patient's decision to stop eating and drinking to hasten death. He highlights conscience concerns and the particular implications of such proposals for people with dementia.
Read →Abortion Policy, Law & PoliticsCOMMENTARY
Dr. Aleck Bourne - The Abortion Pioneer Who Became a Pro-Life Champion
Van Maren recounts the abortion prosecution of British physician Aleck Bourne and its influence on subsequent legal changes. He traces Bourne's later opposition to abortion and links to a longer version published by Canadian Physicians for Life.
Read →Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide & End-of-Life CareNEWS OR ANALYSIS
British Medical Association Requires Doctors to Help Patients Commit Suicide by Self-Starvation
The subtitle of the revised and updated version of my book criticizing utilitarian bioethics, Culture of Death, is, “The Age of ‘Do Harm’ Medicine.” Helping patients kill themselves by self-starvation and dehydration — known in euthanasia parlance as VSED (for voluntary stopping eating and drinking) — certainly fits that designation. Two major medical associations now have endorsed doctors assisting in such suicides by palliating the painful symptoms to help patients go all the way to death. The first was the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) in 2023. This is especial
Read →Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
Surrogacy Gets a Reckoning
It feels like whiplash at the CBC. Everywhere we turn, someone is talking about surrogacy. After years of euphemisms and carefully crafted messaging, the realities of commercial surrogacy are finally breaking into the mainstream. A growing number of high-profile cases are exposing what the industry has worked hard to obscure: surrogacy depends upon profound disparities […] The post Surrogacy Gets a Reckoning appeared first on The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network .
Read →Parents, Families, Adoption & Safe HavenCOMMENTARY
Should Christian Women Freeze Their Eggs?
Waters distinguishes egg freezing from embryo freezing while examining how fertility preservation can lead into ethically contested IVF practices. She urges Christian women to weigh medical, theological and pro-life concerns before using fertility technology.
Read →Abortion Drugs & PracticesCOMMENTARY
The joy of killing babies
Van Maren condemns the signing of Massachusetts legislation that he characterizes as removing remaining limits on later abortion. The essay uses graphic language and moral argument to criticize the celebration surrounding the bill.
Read →Abortion Drugs & PracticesCOMMENTARY
Late-stage elective abortion is murder
Bacus argues that elective abortion late in pregnancy cannot be morally distinguished from killing a newborn on the basis of personhood. The essay focuses on moral status, fetal development and the implications of drawing protection at birth rather than earlier.
Read →Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsNEWS OR ANALYSIS
The Lancet: Wildfires the Latest “Health Emergency”
In recent years, editors of medical, science, and bioethics journals have proclaimed almost every major societal problem to be a “health emergency” or crisis. Off the top of my head, I can think of several: guns, racism, immigration enforcement, global warming, abortion restrictions, and fear of future pandemics. Now, the editors of The Lancet want to stoke fear of summer wildfires as the pretext to claim yet another public health emergency. From, “Wildfires, a Health Emergency“: Europe is burning. Wildfires in France and Spain have engulfed hundreds of square miles of land, destroying homes a
Read →Ep. 231 - Making Abortion Unthinkable
Physician Kristin Collier describes the development of her pro-life convictions and their implications for medical practice. The interview connects human dignity, professional ethics, and cultural change beyond abortion's legal status.
Read →Human Dignity, Disability & BioethicsCOMMENTARY
The science is settled. The law is a mess. And new technology is about to blow the whole thing open.
Waters discusses the uncertain legal status of frozen embryos and emerging technologies such as artificial wombs and in vitro gametogenesis. She argues that law should recognize human embryos directly rather than relying on location or method of conception as proxies for protection.
Read →