The FDA Attacked in an Ayn Rand Estore Book

      I have finished reading, In Defense of Selfishness: Why the Code of Self-Sacrifice is Unjust and Destructive, by Peter Schwartz of the Ayn Rand Institute.  The book is an excellent exploration of the evil of altruism and the virtue of its opposite--selfishness.  However, I want to focus this blog on an agency that Schwartz comments on extensively: the FDA.  The following are some selected quotes:

"The FDA exists, not to keep us from being deceived by drug manufacturers, but to keep us from judging for ourselves what is good for us." (p.140)  "The FDA, like any regulatory body, has only one basic function: to say no--or rather, to say no and to force us to abide by that pronouncement." (p.140)

"...even if you are among those who are helped by a drug--even if you are dying and the drug is your only hope--you will not be permitted to take any medicine deemed detrimental to the "population as a whole."." (p.160-161)  "Since only individuals concretely exist, the FDA's policy of deciding "on the basis of the whole" can mean only what collectivism always means: some individuals must be sacrificed for the sake of other individuals." (p.162)

Why doesn't government leave medicine alone?  Instead of "repealing and replacing" Obamacare, why doesn't government get out of the way and let Capitalist Medicine work?

Paul Wharton

Special thanks to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY)