Author: Wesley J. Smith

low angle view of scientists holding various test tubes

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
September 15, 2026

Categories
Political Science
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, democratic institutions, economic growth, health, ideology, income, inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, International Panel on Inequality, moral values, Nature (journal), policy issues, political science, scientists, social mobility, technocracy, technocratic rule, United Nations, wealth}

Top Science Journal Would Empower Scientists to Rule on Income and Wealth

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 15, 2026

Political Science, Scientific Reasoning

4}

Reframing subjective policy issues as questions of objective “science” makes it easier to justify relying on “experts” for policy answers. Read More ›

Modern open-plan science laboratory with researchers in white coats working at workstations, bright natural light, 4k, Generative AI.

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
September 2, 2026

Categories
Scientific Freedom
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, amateurs, anti-science, authoritarianism, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, climate change, COVID, debate, Department of Health and Human Services, engineers, freedom of inquiry, government, Gregor Mendel, health-care workers, humankind, Jane Goodall, legislation, misinformation, Nature (journal), patients, registration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scientific inquiry, scientists, South Africa, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, transgenderism, vaccine skeptics}

Register Scientists with the Government? Top Journal Says Yes!

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 2, 2026

Scientific Freedom, Scientific Reasoning

4}

It would be a means of controlling who is allowed to “do” science and the ability to determine what can be communicated to the public. Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
August 18, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Ethics
Legal Science (jurisprudence)
Tagged
, activists, automobiles, Aztecs, beauty, business, copper, Ecuador, emancipation, environmental regulations, fish, flourishing, government, hares, health, human sacrifice, ideologues, indigenous people, Jan van de Venis, judges, language, lawyers, life, lithium, litigation, Māori, modern life, nature, nature rights, New Zealand, Panama, permit requirements, The Water Diplomat, Whanganui River, zoning}

Using Mild Language to Push Radical Nature Rights

_{Wesley J. Smith
August 18, 2026

Bioethics, Ethics, Legal Science (jurisprudence)

6}

Nature rights activists seem nice. They are not verbal bomb throwers. Rather, they deploy passive language. Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
August 10, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Computational Sciences
Medicine
Tagged
, artificial intelligence, bacteria, biotech, chatbots, ChatGPT, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, complacency, drug-resistant bacteria, human viruses, Peter Koo, poisons, Science (journal), Stanford University, technology, virus, Wall Street Journal, World Health Organization}

Hey, Great News! Scientists Used AI to Create Viruses

_{Wesley J. Smith
August 10, 2026

Bioethics, Computational Sciences, Medicine

3}

What about attempts to test their virulence in humans? The approach in the Stanford lab sure sounds like a new form of gain-of-function research to me. Read More ›

Doctor carrying a cooler box for organ transport doctor ensures swift and safe organ transport using specialized cooler box, optimizing life-saving medical procedures

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
July 17, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, assisted suicide, Australia, Belgium, bioethics, brain cancer, Canada, cause of death, coma, dead donor rule, euthanasia, Hippocratic Oath, homicide, medical ethics, mentally ill, natural resources, Netherlands, New Zealand, npr, organ donation, organ-harvesting, patients, recontextualization, Robert D. Truog, Spain, suffering, The New England Journal of Medicine}

Ghoulish Proposal: Killing for Organs Gets a Prestige Endorsement

_{Wesley J. Smith
July 17, 2026

Bioethics, Medicine

5}

Transforming sick and disabled people into a killable caste objectifies them as potential natural resources to be mined or harvested. Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
June 14, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, assisted suicide, authority, business, chronic pain, despair, disability, doctors, Gallup, love, media, medicine, moral acceptability, opinions, physician-assisted suicide, poll, popular culture, prevention, rescue, respondents, self-termination, spouse, suicide, terminal sickness}

On Morality of Suicide, a Wide Disparity of Opinion; Why?

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 14, 2026

Bioethics, Medicine

3}

Close to a majority, 49 percent, answered that committing suicide with a doctor’s help is morally acceptable, while 45 percent responded that it is not. Read More ›

Carer in latex gloves feeding an aged lady

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
June 4, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, advance directive, autonomy, caregivers, chemotherapy, comfort feeding, death, dementia, Dementia-Specific Advance Directives, dignity, euthanasia, feeding tubes, food, kidney dialysis, medical treatments, New Jersey, nourishment, public policy, spoon-feeding, undernourishment, water}

Mission to Kill Dementia Patients Moves Forward

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 4, 2026

Bioethics, Medicine

2}

By all means, prohibit forced feeding, but also provide that patients be given all nourishment they want. Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
June 2, 2026

Categories
Earth Sciences
Environment & Climate
Tagged
, agency, Andes, climate, ecocide, environmental policy, environmentalism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, geological features, glaciers, Great Lakes, human beings, Ice Age, India, indigenous peoples, legal rights, National Geographic, natural entities, nature rights, Pachamama, PLOS Climate, public policy, religion, science journals, snow}

Climate Science Journal Trumpets Glaciers’ “Right to Exist”

_{Wesley J. Smith
June 2, 2026

Earth Sciences, Environment & Climate

4}

Glaciers are made up of snow that over millennia compacted into ice. They grow or shrink based on climate. They are geological features. Read More ›

Hands of an elderly man resting on a walking cane

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
May 30, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, antipsychotics, assisted suicide, bioethicists, Bioethics (journal), confusion, decision‐making, dehydration, distress, doctors, encouragement, euthanasia, fluids, HIV, palliating doctor, patients, physicians, professional journals, refractory delirium, self-starvation, suffering, suicide, suicide assistance, syringes, terminal sedation, voluntary stop eating and drinking, VSED}

Journal Advocates “Terminal Sedation” for People Committing Suicide by Self-Starving

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 30, 2026

Bioethics, Medicine

5}

Articles in professional journals are a means of constructing future public policy and people need to be warned. Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
May 15, 2026

Categories
Metaphysics
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, Adolf Hitler, atheists, automatons, BBC, church, creativity, determinism, free will, human value, Humanize, illusion, insanity, Ludwig van Beethoven, MacArthur Genius Grant, Michael Egnor, moral agency, nihilism, Ninth Symphony, Robert Sapolsky, Science Focus, theists, Vincent van Gogh}

Another “Scientific” Attack on Free Will

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 15, 2026

Metaphysics, Neuroscience & Mind

5}

We don’t even know what consciousness is. If there is no free will, are we even really conscious? Read More ›