Should dying patients have the right to try drugs not yet approved by the government?
In my Business Ethics course, we cover the classic Laetrile case (my one-hour video lecture with accompanying readings on the case), in which the arguments for government paternalism and market liberalism go head to head. Every few years brings another round of debates — for example, over treatments for AIDS, the use of medical marijuana, and so on — making this a perennial issue.
Here is some recent journalism on right-to-try bills in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, and Missouri to enable patients to make their own choices.
Related:
Daniel Henninger on “Drug Lag” (at The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics).
Daniel Klein and Alexander Tabarrok’s FDAReview.org (at The Independent Institute).