Kit Details

(a) Medicine: Death of a Profession (2 CDs; 86 minutes)
This audio CD contains a speech that was delivered by philosopher Leonard Peikoff at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston in 1985. Its theme is how government intervention in medicine is driving out quality medical care in the United States, and what is needed to restore the medical profession to its historically rational, respected state. It is an engaging, essentialized presentation that is still insightful 25 years after it was given.


(b) The Forgotten Man of Socialized Medicine: The Doctor (Pamphlet; 15 pages)
This pamphlet contains two articles: one by philosopher Leonard Peikoff and the other by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand.

Doctors and the Police State, by Leonard Peikoff, was first published in 1962. In it Dr. Peikoff identifies the philosophic error and political injustice of the Medicare program—three years before the Social Security amendment was signed into law. Peikoff asks, "By what moral principle are the doctors to be deprived of their right to practice their profession as free men?" Drawing from several examples around the world, this brief article casts the political controversy of socialized medicine into concise, philosophic terms.

How Not to Fight Against Socialized Medicine, by Ayn Rand, is based on an address that she gave to the Medical Society of New Jersey in 1963. In this article, Ayn Rand exposes socialized medicine as a call for self-sacrifice, and warns doctors to beware of political package deals that attempt to turn the medical profession into one of "service to the public." She writes, "Ladies and gentleman, you will not win your case until and unless you are ready to declare that you find [socialized medicine] degrading—as any man of self-esteem would find slavery degrading."


(c) The Real Right to Medical Care vs Socialized Medicine (Pamphlet; 43 pages)
This is an essay by economist George Reisman, published in 1994. In it, Reisman upholds the real right of the consumer to purchase medical care in a free market as against its opposite: the pseudo-right of consumers to demand that medical care be provided by the state. The essay discusses how the conflation of these ideas explains certain economic and cultural aspects of the current healthcare crisis. It also includes an analysis of the proposed Clinton healthcare reforms of the early 1990s.


(d) Noble Vision (Novel; 338 pages)
This is author Gen LaGreca's first novel. It is the story of a surgeon and his patient, living in a society in which medicine has come under state control. The protagonist is developing a revolutionary new procedure that could save lives. But in addition to having to contend with challenges in medical science (metaphysical obstacles), he faces the rules and regulations of the government (man-made obstacles). LaGreca dramatizes how it becomes impossible for doctors to think when faced with the arbitrary and conflicting edicts of dozens of government committees, boards, and programs.


(e) Atlas Shrugged (Novel; 1,069 pages)
Atlas Shrugged is author Ayn Rand's literary masterpiece and philosophical thriller. It is the story of a productive genius living in a society of men who said that they did not need his kind, and the consequences they encounter when he grants them a world of their making. Encompassing a scope vastly more broad than just the field of medicine, Atlas Shrugged dramatizes the crucial importance of reason and rationality in all spheres of human life, ranging from industry to romance to poli>tics to art. It is the capstone to the kit.


(f) Pin and Ribbon (Black Ribbon Project)
The purpose of this ribbon is to raise awareness of the damage our government has caused to healthcare freedom and the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship. Under the new health reform laws, physicians will be compelled to base their advice and treatment on politically determined goals, even when in conflict with the best interest of their patients. The ribbons are being distributed by the Black Ribbon Project, and will be included in the self-defense kit while supplies last.