Wesley J. Smith

Who is Wesley J. Smith?

Wesley J. Smith is a lawyer and author, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism. He is also a lawyer and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture. In 2004 he was named by the National Journal as one of the nation’s top expert thinkers in bioengineering for his work in bioethics. He is a critic of scientocracy, "the trend to let 'the scientists' decide what is ethical and what our public policies should be". As an author, he has published several works, the most recent of them being The War on Humans in 2014

Smith has authored or co-authored twelve books. He formerly collaborated with consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and has been published in regional and national outlets such as The New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, the New York Post, and others. He is also well known for his blog, "Secondhand Smoke", hosted by First Things, and which advances his theory of "human exceptionalism" and criticizes individuals whom he has termed "mainstream" bioethicists such as Peter Singer, Julian Savulescu, Jacob M. Appel, and R. Alta Charo. He has also been highly critical of science writer Matt Ridley.