Humanize From Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism
Topic

end of life issues

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Kitchen waste recycling in composter

Composting the Dead Devalues the Importance of the Living

Starting in 2027, California will allow composting of the dead. Known officially as “natural organic reduction (NOR),” this novel final disposition process transforms the deceased’s body into soil to spread on gardens or in which to plant flowers or a tree. Read More ›
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Premature newborn  baby girl

Baby Tinslee Survives Hospital’s Attempt to Push Her Off Life Support

If it were up to the doctors, Tinslee Lewis would have been in her grave before age one. Instead, in a legal and advocacy triumph affirming the proper relationship between patient/family and doctors, the intrinsic equal dignity of the seriously ill—as well as a testament to the power of a mother’s love—the now 3-year-old Tinslee has gone home, still ill but very much alive. Read More ›
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Lynn Vincent on ‘Lawless,’ the Truth About the Terri Schiavo Case, and Why Terri Still Matters

When Terri Schiavo collapsed with a cardiac arrest in 1990, she could have had no idea that 32 years later people all over the world would know her name and care very much about the manner in which she died. What began as a private family tragedy ultimately exploded into an international cultural conflagration and what was perhaps the most important legal case involving American bioethics since Roe v Wade. When it was over, Terri was dead, society was bitterly divided, and our culture changed fundamentally. Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, journalist and best-selling author Lynn Vincent, spent more than a year researching the Schiavo case for her new podcast Lawless, which examines “the frightening fact of American life that not all crime is against the law.” In 14 detailed episodes, Vincent explores the facts, controversy, and meaning of the Terri Schiavo case.   Vincent is the #1 New York Times best-selling writer of eleven nonfiction books with more than 16 million copies in print. Lynn’s latest book is INDIANAPOLIS: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Navy History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man (Simon and Schuster 2018.) Written with National Geographic historian Sara Vladic, was chosen as one of the Best of 2018 by Barnes and Noble, Kirkus Reviews, Military Times, Amazon, and NPR. Among Vincent’s other bestselling books are Same Kind of Different as Me (with Ron Hall and Denver Moore) and Heaven is for Real (with Todd Burpo.) Both were released as major motion pictures. While on active duty with the U.S. Navy, Vincent served during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Her military experience proved critical in writing Dog Company: A True Story of American Soldiers Abandoned by Their High Command, written with former 101st Airborne infantry commander Captain Roger T. Hill, Dog Company. A veteran journalist, Lynn’s investigative pieces have been cited before Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. She has been profiled in major media outlets, including Newsweek and The New Yorker. Lawless is available for listening on all podcast platforms. Lawless: Not Every Crime is Against the Law Bio – Lynn Vincent Books Archive – Lynn Vincent The Great Terri Schiavo Divide | Wesley J. Smith | First Things

human lung
human lung in plastic dome during organ transplant

Spain Joins the Euthanize-and-Organ-Harvest Club

In my first anti-euthanasia column, written for Newsweek in 1993, I warned that if assisted suicide/euthanasia became legal and normalized, it would lead to “organ harvesting thrown in as a plum to society.” Needless to say, I was called a fear monger, alarmist, and hysteric — and those were the polite hate mailers. Read More ›
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Ventilator monitor and african american female patient in hospital bed with oxygen ventilator

Hospital Loses ‘Futile Care’ Attempt to Force Covid Patient Off Life Support

“Futile care” is a pronounced threat to patient autonomy and the equality of all human life. This is the idea. When doctors think that the quality of a patient’s life is not worth living — but the patient, family, or surrogate want care to continue — doctors can overrule patients and terminate wanted life-sustaining treatment. Read More ›
obstetrician cutting umbilical cord
Close-up doctor obstetrician nurse cutting umbilical cord with medical scissors to newborn infant baby. Medical surgeon giving birth to child. New human life begin. delivery labor childbirth hospital

Doctors Kill 10 Percent of All Babies Who Die in Flanders

There is no such thing as a little euthanasia. Granting doctors (and, increasingly, nurses) a license to kill eventually corrupts medicine — from the beginning of life to the far reaches of old age. Those with eyes to see, let them see. Read More ›
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NICU BABY

Baby’s Parents Refuse to End Life Support, Lose Custody to State

Keaton Crull, a three-month-old baby from Indiana being treated in Kentucky, is about to be removed from life support over his parents’ objections. That’s because they no longer have a say. Their parental rights over his medical decisons were stripped–and it looks like that drastic step might have been taken because they refused to give up on him. Read More ›
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Crying Newborn Cut Umbilical Cord

Brit Baby’s Death Ruled Better Than Small Chance of Living — Again

Readers may recall the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases from the U.K. — in which doctors both wanted to remove life support and prevent the children from being transferred to other hospitals willing to continue care. Because the law in the U.K. permits courts to decide the “best interests” of children in medical extremis, the MDs got their way. Read More ›
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Man in prison hands of behind hold Steel cage jail bars. offender criminal locked in jail. filter dark vintage.

Court Wrong to Okay Refusal of Life-Saving Medication to Prisoners

This is outrageous. Kentucky denied a prisoner with hepatitis a life-saving drug that always works — because of the expense. Now, a court of appeals ruling finds that the move is constitutional. Read More ›
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Florida Hospital Sues to End Ill Nurse’s Life

“Futile care” — the forced removal by doctors and hospital bioethics committees of wanted life-extending treatment over patient and family objections — is, alas, still the law of Texas. And now a hospital in Florida has sued for the right to do the same thing to Genea Bristol, age 41. Read More ›