Liberty and Death From Ebola: A Paul Family Debate

Father and son confront the libertarian implications of a global pandemic.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul talks to his father, then Rep. Ron Paul, during a news conference June 22, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
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A deep suspicion about the use of American power, along with professional interest in medicine, runs deep in the Ron and Rand Paul family. So the respective responses by father and son to Ebola are a fascinating lesson in the evolution of the family's libertarian views under the pressure of a crisis.

In his weekly column on the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity's website, the elder Paul traced the outbreak to the exercise of American power.