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Right-to-try isn’t about giving patients false hope; it’s about self-determination and respecting individual rights.
by Lindsay Marie
February 24, 2018
The right-to-try discussion is heating up again after President Trump voiced his support for the measure during his State of the Union address. Right-to-try allows terminally ill patients to try potentially lifesaving medicines that have passed basic safety testing with the FDA but are not on pharmacy shelves yet.
On Tuesday, February 5th, several hundred opponents of right-to-try sent a letter to the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee expressing their strong opposition to the right-to-try legislation currently under consideration by the committee. The majority of the letter focused not on the patients the bill would affect but on how it could potentially weaken a bureaucracy.
Opponents believe that terminally ill patients deserve protection and that the bill gives them false hope. The right for terminally ill patients, alongside their personal medical professionals, to choose the best possible option given their specific situation, deserves protection. Right-to-try legislation isn’t about providing patients hope; it’s about putting them before the bureaucracy and ensuring they have freedom of choice.
When it comes to treatment options, terminally ill patients, such as those diagnosed with cancer, have relatively few choices. Although they are two of the most-utilized treatments for cancer, chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause severe adverse events, including death. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be useful in shrinking tumors because they cause cell death. Unfortunately, the two treatments are not able to differentiate between healthy cells and cancerous cells, which leads to healthy cells dying as well.
Frequent adverse effects of chemotherapy include nerve and muscle problems, kidney problems, mouth sores and painful swallowing, low blood cell counts, infection, and bleeding. Adverse effects caused by radiation therapy vary depending on location but can include secondary cancer, swelling of the brain, seizures, nerve damage, bone death, scar tissue in the lungs, congestive heart failure, and osteoporosis.
Given the data regarding severe adverse events from the FDA and study statistics, one could argue that traditional treatment options currently available to cancer patients reduce the patient’s quality of life, may hasten their death, and ultimately give them false hope. Ironically, those are reasons cited by right-to-try opponents for disallowing patients the right to choose the right treatment course for them if that includes non-traditional treatments, considered “experimental,” or just not approved by the FDA yet.
The experimental treatments that patients would be allowed to try under the proposed right-to-try legislation have already completed Phase I clinical trials which identify safety risks, pharmacological effects, toxicity, and dose ranges. The passage of Phase I indicates that the treatments have been deemed safe by doctors, have passed safety trials per the FDA’s guidelines, and are allowed to move into Phase II trials.
Phase II trials evaluate the efficacy and, in the case of cancer treatments, if the treatment works for a particular type of cancer. Depending on the drug a patient is seeking, Phase II data may not yet be available.
The lack of FDA approval or the lack of published Phase II data for a particular treatment is not equivalent to the finding that the drug is ineffective. However, it’s the absence of FDA approval and efficacy data that opponents cite as a reason to disallow patients the ability to make decisions regarding their personal health.
It’s difficult to comprehend how one individual’s interest in efficacy could supersede a terminally ill patient’s right to self-determination. As President Reagan once said, “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.” If life is an inalienable right, no one, including the government, should be able to prevent a terminally ill patient from attempting to sustain or prolong it.
Even the Supreme Court has recognized the right of an individual to independently make certain kinds of life decisions such as marriage, contraception, child rearing, family relationships, and procreation as an aspect of individual liberty. A terminally ill patient’s choice of particular medical treatment should be no less entitled to protection than a couple’s choice of contraceptive.
Right-to-try legislation is about putting the patient before the bureaucracy. It’s about ensuring terminally ill patients have freedom of choice when it comes to treatments that could prolong their lives. It’s about giving patients alternatives when they may be considering forgoing treatment altogether due to the potential adverse effects caused by traditional options. It’s about protecting individual liberty and rights.
As John Stuart Mill wrote, “Freedom is pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it.” If critics are against trying medications deemed experimental, then they themselves should not try them, but they should not obstruct other patients and their doctors from making that same decision for themselves.
— Right-to-Try Puts Patients Before Bureaucracy originally appeared at FEE.org.
Rod is one of our nation’s leading minds. He’s smart, original, and very committed—a combination that one rarely finds.
Rod Martin and [former Howard Dean campaign manager] Joe Trippi are America’s two foremost experts on online politics.
Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.
Rod Martin is the kind of dynamic leader who has the knowledge, ability and experience to lead us successfully into the 21st Century. His vision for America is compelling.
Rod Martin literally wrote the book on excellence. Humble yet brilliant, a man of love and compassion, with penetrating clarity he illuminates the world around us, and we are both stirred and enlightened.
Rod Martin is a born leader and an outstanding political mind. Anyone who takes him on is going to have a serious fight on their hands.
Rod Martin is a man of uncommon vision and character. Ever since I first worked alongside Rod in the early days of PayPal, I’ve been struck by his powerful vision for the future. Rod understands the intersection of technology, politics and culture in a way that few others do.
Rod Martin wears with uncommon grace an uncanny ability to link his vigorous faith to the practical challenges of both the business world and the political arena. Yet the respect he shows for others carries a warmth and modesty that are both too rare among those who are strong advocates of feisty positions.
America badly needs more leaders who really get the future. We need more Rod Martins.
Rod Martin is a modern day philosopher-statesman. He is a capitalist intellectual, a conservative iconoclast, a gentle adversary and a kind prophet. He inspires us towards a fresh national vision built upon the original founding principles.
Rod Martin is not only effective and efficient, but he is also perceptive, wise and gracious. He gets things done. He is a great friend and a great ally.
Rod is one of the sharpest, most gracious men I know, and one of the most gifted political thinkers today. His ability to analyze issues and communicate thoughtful insights on them have earned him the respect of people across the political spectrum.
I am proud to have been Rod Martin’s friend for a quarter century, and I can tell you that he is one of the finest men and most outstanding leaders in our church and in our country today. He has a knack for turning everything he touches to success.
Rod Martin is a cornucopian entrepreneur and eutropic thinker whose influence radiates through an array of companies, institutions, movements and churches. A renaissance American, he is also a prolific friend of freedom and faith around the globe.
If Rod Martin represents the next generation of leaders, America has nothing to worry about.
A leader and a servant, in public life and in private, Rod Martin strides at the top of his profession, and has nowhere to go but up. He is in the truest sense of the word ‘outstanding’.
Rod Martin is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished thought leaders today. He is a wonderful mentor, a humble role model, and a deep inspiration for the next generation of scientific innovators and entrepreneurs.
Rod’s achievements pale beside his character and his brilliance. He sees what others can’t. He leads when others won’t.
Rod Martin is one of America’s finest young minds.
