Court Rejects the Right to Use Drugs Being Tested

This comes as no surprise to me. They're all idiots in my opinion. I bet they'd feel differently if it were they who were terminally ill, don't you? In part, as reported by the New York Times:

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that patients with terminal illnesses do not have a constitutional right to use medicines that have not yet won regulatory approval.

The 8-to-2 decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came in a closely watched and emotional case that pitted desperate patients willing to try unproven, even risky, therapies against those arguing that drugs should be proved safe and effective before they are made available.

The decision preserves the current regulatory system. If it had gone the other way “it would have undermined the entire drug approval process,” said William B. Schultz, a former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who wrote an amicus brief arguing against the early access to drugs.

The case was filed against the Food and Drug Administration in 2003 by the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs, a group founded by a man whose daughter Abigail died from cancer after a long battle to receive treatment with experimental drugs that were eventually approved.

The group, joined by the Washington Legal Foundation, argued that forcing patients to wait years for a drug to go through the process of clinical trials deprived dying patients of their right to self-defense and violated the Fifth Amendment clause stating that people cannot be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

A district court ruled against the Abigail Alliance. That decision was reversed by an appeals court panel, but the full appeals court yesterday upheld the original district court decision.

It makes no sense to me. It makes no sense why people with diseases such as cancer can't legally own and smoke pot throughout the country. It makes no sense to me why people who are dying can't use any drug they so choose in hopes of buying themselves more time, or even curing themselves. What, is the FDA afraid someone will sue them for getting well??? They certainly can't sue them -- or the makers of the drug -- for killing them!

We're able to do more for our dying pets than our dying family members. It's unforgivable.

FDA, Federal Appeals Court, Abigail Alliance, New York Times