Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.)

  1. Where does the name for The Lucidicus Project come from? The name was created from the word lucid, which describes something that is "clear to the understanding." (The archaic ending is in honor of the great Greek tradition of scientific study.) The goal of The Lucidicus Project is to help clarify for students the moral and economic case for capitalism in medicine. This goal is partly in response to a trend in which the definitions of certain political and ethical concepts—such as "rights" and "capitalism"—have been distorted. Opponents of these ideas use smears, false connotations, and emotionalism to prevent people from understanding what the concepts really mean, making it difficult to hold any rational discussion about policy. The Lucidicus Project has set out to help make these concepts intelligible to young doctors, such that they understand, for instance, what capitalism does and does not entail. The more doctors there are who understand these ideas, the more difficult it will be for advocates of socialized medicine to maintain such contradictions as "the right to healthcare" or "the immorality of capitalism."

  2. Is The Lucidicus Project affiliated with, or does it support, any political party? No. The project is concerned with helping medical students, not appealing to politicians to vote for or against various bills. Many of our editorials are written on the subject of what effects new legislation will have, but this is to help digest news stories for the benefit of doctors, not to influence legislators. While there is certainly a time and place for political activism, we choose to focus on helping young doctors to learn to defend themselves, rather than on getting current politicians to change their views.

  3. What is laissez-faire capitalism? Laissez-faire capitalism refers to a system in which property is privately owned and individual rights are protected as an absolute. Under this view, a proper government consists of a police force (to protect against domestic criminals), an army (to protect against foreign threats of force), and a court system (to adjudicate civil disputes). Strictly speaking, the "laissez-faire" modifier (which means "let do," as in "hands off") is redundant, but it reinforces the idea of a consistent implementation of capitalism over a mixed system (the U.S. today, for example, is a mixture of capitalist and socialist policies). Capitalism in medicine would mean that doctors would be free to practice medicine in accordance with their own judgment, rather than be beholden to government rules, regulations, or mandates. They would be subject to whatever contracts and agreements they enter voluntarily, such as contracts with their patients, hospitals (i.e. as an employee), other physicians (i.e. as part of a group practice), or whatever the case may be. Under capitalism, a person is free to pursue his own happiness, so long as he does not initiate physical force or fraud against another person.

  4. Are the kits only for students who already agree with these ideas? No. The only prerequisite is that you have is a genuine interest in learning more about these topics and an honest openness to considering the case for capitalism. As a medical student, you have probably spent most of your academic career to date studying fields such as anatomy and biology. You may very well have never even had a course in philosophy or economics. It is expected that you will have all sorts of initial doubts, questions, and uncertainties about these ideas. In fact, if part of the reason you chose to go into a scientific field was because you found subjects like philosophy useless, unchallenging, or completely detached from reality, then there is a good chance that you are exactly the type of person who will find these ideas to be an invigorating change.

  5. Is The Lucidicus Project active in any other countries besides the United States? Not substantially, but we award MISDKs to medical students regardless of where they live and study. Rights, political freedom, and capitalism are good universally, not just to the United States or the Western world.