View Single Post
Old 01-25-2008, 06:57 PM   #1 (permalink)
UKking
Crazy
 
Should dying patients be allowed to take experimental drugs

Quote:
Terminally ill patients have no constitutional right to gain access to experimental drugs that have yet to win federal approval, the US Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The top court refused to hear a case brought by the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs, which accuses the government's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of violating the legal rights of the patients.

As is customary when the court declines to take up a case, the nine justices gave no explanation of their reasoning.

The decision let stand an August ruling by the federal appeals court in Washington, which said the FDA was right to refuse access to drugs that have yet to go through the lengthy process of clinical trials.

"Although terminally ill patients desperately need curative treatments ... their deaths can certainly be hastened by the use of a potentially toxic drug with no proven therapeutic benefit," the appeals court had said.

Steven Walker, who co-founded the Abigail Alliance in 2001, had urged the Supreme Court to give patients suffering incurable disease a legal redress against the "unelected, tenured career bureaucrats" of the FDA.

Source
I think that experimental drugs are fine, as long as they are ready for human trials. The families and the patient have to be fully informed of the risks. If drugs aren't thoroughly trialled, then they will never become FDA approved. If there's a drug to potentially cure me, I'd want the option of taking it and being made aware of the risks.
UKking is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360