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

Lynn Vincent on ‘Lawless,’  the Truth About the Terri Schiavo Case, and Why Terri Still Matters

Humanize with Wesley J. Smith from Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. We speak on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives.

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We live in a time in which eliminating suffering is considered by many to be society’s ultimate purpose. Too often, this leads to policies that eliminate suffering by eliminating the sufferer. Still, for those not experiencing intense pain or anguish, arguing for improved care instead of increased access to assisted suicide or euthanasia can seem like a blithe platitude. “If you were really suffering,” I have heard repeatedly in my more than thirty years involved with these issues, “you would sing a different tune.” Perhaps. But many people who suffer intensely sing from the same songbook. One, is my good friend and guest for this episode of Humanize, Mark Pickup. Pickup has experienced the intense terror and anguish caused by disabling and progressive multiple sclerosis over several decades. Yet, in the midst of his intense pain, he became one of North America’s most prominent public speakers seeking to help others maneuver their way through travail and to find meaning even in the most difficult life circumstances. He is also a noted Christian apologist. Pickup has addressed politicians in Canada and the United States, churches and denominational leaders, universities, high schools and community groups, hospital medical staffs, local, state, and provincial pro-life conventions as well as keynote speaker to U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfasts (2001, 2005, and 2010). Pickup is extensively published in Canadian and U.S. media and has appeared on innumerable radio and television programs warning against a cultural drift toward euthanasia acceptance. Mark has received numerous awards for his work including the Monsignor Bill Irwin Award for Ethical Excellence (Canada) and a Governor General’s Medal for community service. He writes the Human Life Matters blog that deals with issues of the sanctity of human life and other matters of cultural concern. HumanLifeMatters Mark Davis Pickup (@MarkDavisPickup) / X (twitter.com)

Mark Davis Pickup on Living with Intense Suffering and Experiencing a Miraculous Healing

To say the least, bioethics is controversial. Many in the mainstream movement reject the sanctity and equal dignity of human life around issues such as abortion, assisted suicide, and biotechnology. But there is a robust pushback against such approaches—a human dignity bioethics, if you will—that promotes medical ethics and public health policies that align with the “do no harm” ethic of the Hippocratic Oath. The differences in these approaches impact our very understanding about the meaning and importance of human life. How do these distinctions play are among the most important and contentious controversies of the day. To get a handle on the current bioethics landscape, Wesley interviewed one of the most impressive and energetic defenders of human exceptionalism in bioethics today. Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D, is a Professor of Medical Humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine and holds the Monsignor Curran Fellowship in Moral Theology at St. Joseph Seminary in New York. Before that, he spent 14 years in Fordham University’s theology department. Among other places, his articles have appeared in the American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Journal of the Catholic Health Association, New York Times, Washington Post, New York Daily News and America magazine. He has monthly columns with Religion News Service and Angelus, writes a bimonthly feature piece for The Pillar, and does regular Q&As for OSV News. He is the author of eight books with two on the way. Peter Singer and Christian Ethics (Cambridge) was named a 2012 “best book” with ABC Religion and Ethics; Beyond the Abortion Wars (Eerdmans), was a 2015 award-winner with the Catholic Media Association; Resisting Throwaway Culture (New City) was named 2020 “Resource of the Year” by the Catholic Publishers Association. He also penned Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality. Dr. Camosy is also the founding editor of a new book series with New City Press called The Magenta Project. In addition to advising the pro-life commission of the Archdiocese of New York and receiving the 2018 St. Jerome Award for scholarly excellence from the Catholic Library Association. Camosy is a proud knight of the St. Peter Claver Society. He and his wife Paulyn have four children, three of whom they adopted from a Filipino orphanage in June of 2016. Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity: Camosy, Charles C.: 9781646801527: Amazon.com: Books For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action: Camosy, Charles C.: 9781616366629: Amazon.com: Books https://www.newsweek.com/vulnerable-groups-deserve-protectionthat-includes-embryos-opinion-1873531 https://www.newsweek.com/pro-life-movement-needs-fundamentally-new-approach-opinion-1859885 https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/brain-death-at-a-crossroads

Dr. Charles Camosy on Current Trends in Bioethics

It is no secret that most of society’s critical institutions are suffering from a crisis of trust. One of these is science, which heretofore enjoyed the confidence of the vast majority of the American people. To learn, what happened, whether the loss of confidence is deserved, and what can be done about it, Wesley asked the Director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture to engage the crisis. This is Meyer’s second appearance on Humanize. Dr. Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge and is a former geophysicist and college professor. He authored Signature in the Cell, which was named a Book of the Year for 2009 by the Times of London, the New York Times best seller, Darwin’s Doubt, and most recently, The Return of the God Hypothesis. Meyer has also published editorials in national newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The National Post (of Canada), The Daily Telegraph (of London) and The Los Angeles Times.  He has appeared on national television and radio programs such as NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, Fox News Live, Good Morning America and was recently heard by millions of viewers in an extended interview on the Joe Rogan podcast.  He has also been featured in two New York Times front-page stories and has garnered attention in other top national media. In 2008, he appeared with Ben Stein in the theatrical-released documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.  He has also been featured prominently in the science documentaries, Icons of Evolution, The Case for a Creator, and Darwin’s Dilemma, which aired on PBS and which Meyer co-wrote with producer Lad Allen. About | Stephen C. Meyer (stephencmeyer.org) Center for Science and Culture  Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design  Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on the ‘God Hypothesis’ and the materialists’ increasingly fringe rationales for life and the universe | Humanize New England Journal of Medicine Pushes Gender Treatments for Minors | National Review The American Anthropological Association Is Shamefully Anti-Scientific | National Review

Stephen C. Meyer on the Crisis of Trust in Science

Racism has been America’s lingering cancer. There is no question that great strides have been made in eradicating this evil from our culture since the bad old days of slavery and Jim Crow. But alas, the urgent task is not completed, and as a result, a great divide still lingers among too many Americans based on superficial and irrelevant differences of skin color and hair texture. Listening to each other’s stories and understanding differing perspectives are crucial medicines in healing this great wound in our collective national soul. My guest today is an expert communicator in this regard, helping to build bridges and palliate bitterness across racial divides. The Reverand Dr. Arthur Cribbs, Jr. is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a former network television journalist, radio talk show host, and documentarian. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, obtained his Master’s of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1986, and his Doctor of Ministry and Ethics from Claremont School of Theology in 2009. Cribbs produced and hosted the television special, “Stories of the Soul: Life after 9/11,” for which he received an Emmy Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his documentary: Changing Faces of AIDS. He is the former executive director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and has been a long-time ethics instructor for the California Department of Justice working with police departments to improve law enforcement. Due to his many contributions in serving his community, the City of San Diego proclaimed, February30, 2007 as The Reverend Arthur Cribbs Day. Now, Cribbs has written what he calls an “autobiographical novel”—HollyWatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory, actually a memoir recounting his life growing up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he witnessed the destruction of an important African-American community under the onslaught of drugs, gang violence, and ruling class indifference. Cribbs is currently Senior Pastor of the Christian Fellowship Congregational Church in San Diego, CA. He was also Wesley’s college roommate and remains one of his oldest and dearest friends Hollywatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory: Jr Cribbs, Arthur Lawrence: 9780829800371: Amazon.com: Books R-302356.pdf (sandiego.gov) Life-Giving Acts — Little River United Church of Christ (lrucc.org)

The Rev. Dr. Arthur Cribbs, Jr. on His Book HollyWatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory and the Crisis in Race Relations

We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only recently, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” to the other gender—particularly among children and teenagers—is becoming a flood. Much of the American medical establishment and the Biden administration claim that immediately yielding to children’s feelings that they are not the sex they were born is medically necessary, life-saving care. But is the science really settled? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, and other European countries hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK shuttered its largest gender clinic for children as unsafe for patients. Even the World Health Organization—under political pressure, to be sure—just admitted that “the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents.” The UK’s National Health Service concluded that instead of encouraging transition, “the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that children may experience in returning to their original gender role.” Such “returns” are known as “de-transitioning,” a phenomenon that receives far too little attention, and when it does, too often sparks bitter denunciation of detransitioners among radical gender ideologues.  My guest today has dedicated herself to raising the public profile of this important issue. Jennifer Lahl has directed, co-written, and co-produced three important documentaries on the subject. The first, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? explored the medical ethics of administering puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone in children. That film was quickly followed with the release of The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters, which told the stories of three young women who transitioned to living life as if they were men—only to realize that they are, indeed, women. And. completing the trilogy, the just released, The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood, in which five young men describe their experiences with gender dysphoria and their ultimate pursuit to find peace in their natural masculine bodies. Among her many accomplishments, Lahl is a documentarian and founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Her writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community on various issues of bioethical concern. Board of Directors – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org). https://cbc-network.org/ The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood (youtube.com) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) Venus Rising Podcast: https://cbc-network.org/venus-rising-podcast/ WHO Admits Evidence Supporting ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ in Children Is ‘Limited and Variable’ | National Review

Lynn Vincent on ‘Lawless,’ the Truth About the Terri Schiavo Case, and Why Terri Still Matters

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