Human Exceptionalism

Will the United States follow the lead of other countries who have put into law the most radical euthanasia policies?

Should we be working to prevent all suicide, or should we support and encourage "some" suicides?

To what extent should efforts be made to work for the healing of those with significant illnesses, like polio, rather than letting them die with assistance?

Wesley introduces the Transhumanists and then explains what is wrong with their desire to increase human intelligence.

Who should decide what is best for a child, the parents or medical professionals and the state?

How did our society become so accepting of a culture of death - from Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Terri Schiavo, and Planned Parenthood?

Should aspects of nature be given the same kind of rights as human beings?

Returning to the podcast after a personal break, Wesley ask, "Can doctors and other healthcare providers be forced to provide medical proceeds, like abortions, when it goes against their convictions?"

Is euthanasia really the best way to alleviate the suffering of those dealing with serious mental illness?

Should animals and humans have the same rights? How best should we care for animals in a humane way without confusing the value of the two?

Wesley J. Smith shares the story of his friend, Robert Salamanca, who died peacefully with dignity of ALS.

Are we living in the "Brave New World" of Aldous Huxley?

Will healthcare providers who hold to the sanctity of human life be allowed work in the emerging secular society?

Do "doctors of death" need any specialized training to diagnosis and prescribe lethal drugs to patients who want to die?

What is the best way to defend the exceptional nature of human beings?

Do the words that we use to describe the various stages and conditions of human life really matter?

Does it matter how "death" is defined, and who defines it?

Is the desire for meaning and purpose exclusive to those who are religious, or do all human beings long for something more?

Is human life exceptional when compared to the animal kingdom? Some scientists do not think so!

Should a human life be ended just so we can harvest their organs for another person's use? It might be closer than you think!

Does it matter what happens to our bodies after we die? The Orthodox Christian faith says, "Yes!"

Why is our culture obsessed with death, and how can remembrance of death help us to overcome it?

Is the "right to die" more important than religious liberty?

What do euthanasia enthusiasts really want? To eliminate suffering of any kind by eliminating the sufferer.

Should animals have the same rights of "personhood" as humans?

Wesley demonstrates how the West is increasingly incapable of engaging in true debate, achieving broadly agreeable consensuses or finding middle-ground compromises about the most important controversies that vex us.

The once ludicrous notion that ecological protection and fighting climate change require according legally enforceable human-style rights to nature is becoming more mainstream within the environmental movement. Wesley J. Smith examines the consequences.

Even if we came about through purely materialistic and Darwinian means, it is self-evident that something happened to make us so remarkably distinct from every other known life form.

Wesley discusses "transhumanism"—what is quickly becoming the world's newest religion, offering adherents the kind of hope once within the exclusive province of faith and without the humbling concept of an omnipotent God to whom one owes prayer and thanksgiving.

Supporting another's self-destruction is not a compassionate or morally neutral act.

If you think it is respectable to consider babies, whether born or unborn, to be an inferior stage of human life, you can easily come to think that they have few rights that fully developed persons are bound to respect.

Yesterday's views of depredation have become today's banal norms.

Once a culture accepts the fundamental premise of euthanasia consciousness, there is no way to limit doctor-administered death to those who are already at the end of their lives.

Hippocratic pro-life medical professionals are increasingly being pressured to practice their science and art without regard to their personal faith or conscience beliefs.

Two items in the news lately have captured Wesley's attention.

The killing of Cecil the Lion is a bad thing. On a new "Human Exceptionalism," Wesley J. Smith explains why while differentiating between animal rights and animal welfare.

Wesley discusses the concept of human dignity.

Wesley introduces his podcast, as well as the concept of human exceptionalism.