Spring 2008

If you are sick, there is no better place and time to live than America in the 21st century. The past 50 years have witnessed an explosion of medical innovation in the West. Drugs have been developed to lower cholesterol, fight AIDS, and altogether eradicate some diseases. Pharmaceutical companies have invested, and are investing, tens of billions of dollars each year researching new technologies to extend human life.

A scientist working for a pharmaceutical company learns that after decades of research and development, she has succeeded in creating a drug that fights cancer. She wants to buy as much stock in her company as she can afford, knowing that her efforts will cause the stock price to sky-rocket. She wants to take full advantage of her success—to invest in herself. Yet if she buys stock in the company before the news of the cancer drug is made public, she will be liable for insider trading.

Sidebar: A Little Change Means a Lot

In a recent political move, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain voiced his opposition to embryonic stem cell research (ESC). Yet, even as the controversy rages on, the real reasons for opposition to embryonic stem cell research are increasingly obscured.

Every few days we hear that another leading financial institution has written down billions more on subprime investments gone bad. Nearly every major financial institution, it turns out, had a hand in loans to low-credit borrowers—borrowers whose ability to pay often hinged on endlessly low interest rates or a strong housing market. How could this happen? How could nearly all the leading lights of the financial industry—the experts in assessing and managing risk—expose themselves to such massive losses? Or, as a Fortune cover crudely put it: "What were they smoking?"

Sidebar: Testimonial of an OAC Graduate

As more and more young people become interested in Ayn Rand's ideas and methodology, there is an increasing need and demand for an institution that systematically teaches her philosophy. In fact, such an institution exists.

Opponents of embryonic stem cell research often highlight the similarities between babies, fetuses, and embryos, and dismiss the obvious difference between them. Their arguments almost invariably rely on the difficulty of marking precise dividing lines between them, and offer this difficulty as a reason to dismiss the distinctions outright. According to these proponents, there is only a continuum of change from embryo to baby, without any artificially differentiated stages.

The primary purpose of the OAC is to teach students about Objectivism. However, in my case the program also provided a major secondary benefit: the positive effect it had on the rest of my academic life.