Goldwater Institute’s biggest victory of 2018: Right to Try
On May 30th, President Donald Trump signed the federal Right to Try Act into law, protecting the right of terminally ill patients to access investigational treatments that have not received final FDA approval. This was an incredible victory for freedom, a declaration that in our free country, people should be able to decide for themselves – in consultation with their doctors – whether to try medicines that could prolong or even save their lives. It’s a basic constitutional right – a basic human right – to fight for one’s life.
But Right to Try is also a fantastic victory for federalism. 41 states passed Right to Try laws, prompting the federal government to finally take action. Together with patients, doctors, policymakers, and allies nationwide, we used our federal system to change things from the ground up, starting in our state capitols and with the people themselves.
Right to Try is saving lives already. In Texas alone, Dr. Ebrahim Delpassand helped nearly 200 patients under his state law, providing a treatment that has completed clinical trials but was not yet fully approved for advanced stage neuroendocrine cancer. Many of these patients were told they had only months to live but are still alive a year later, thanks to Right to Try.
