A Real Right to Life
Several days ago 29-year-old Brittany Maynard exercised the final act of sovereignty over her life: she chose to end it. She had been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer and, earlier this spring,...
View ArticleAssisted Suicide–Follow-up
I received the following questions in response to my blog “A Real Right to Life,” which defended assisted suicide. (Since I was asked privately, I am omitting the person’s name.) I am a high school...
View ArticleShackling the Internet
The issue of "net neutrality" is just one aspect of a much bigger, more ominous, story: the FCC takeover of the Internet. From now on, the Internet will be treated the way the telephone industry was...
View ArticleAssisted-Suicide Debate
I will be taking part in a June 1 debate at Dartmouth on physician-assisted suicide. The two other participants will be Ronald Green (professor of religion at Dartmouth) and Robert Macauley (professor...
View Article“Women’s Viagra”–Why Should Government Decide?
This was published in Huffington Post on Sept. 5, 2015 http://huff.to/1VFwzPC In reaction to the FDA's recent decision to approve flibanserin—the so-called "women's Viagra"—two camps have emerged....
View ArticleA Rational Case for Gun Ownership
[From my article at RealClearPolitics] “The fundamental error of gun-control advocates is philosophical: They do not really believe that we have free will. “If the goal is to reduce gun murders, the...
View ArticleWhat If We Had No FDA?
[This appeared originally in Huffington Post, 12/7/15] Because the Food and Drug Administration forbids even terminally ill people from taking unauthorized drugs that could save their lives,...
View ArticleThe Shackles of Paternalism
Today, the “nanny-state” is omnipresent. Its latest pernicious intrusion pertains to pain-relief medication. Doctors are being told to restrict their prescriptions of opioids, the drugs (such as...
View ArticleThe Zika Virus and Politicized Science
Science today is regularly distorted to serve other ends. The religious right, for instance, claims that “creationism” should be taught in public schools as a scientific alternative to the theory of...
View ArticleAttack of the Nanny-State
One of the insidious consequences of a paternalistic state is that it renders the concept of fraud virtually meaningless. Our political leaders endorse the idea that government ought to decide what is...
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