The Supreme Court has turned away a right-to-life appeal, refusing dying patients' demand to try promising but unapproved, experimental drugs that might save their lives, according to the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
Instead, the court let stand the policy of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which generally forbids doctors from treating patients with experimental drugs, said the paper.
In September, lawyers for the Abigail Alliance petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that the Constitution gives dying patients a right to try "potentially life-saving drugs."
The alliance said the court should give hope to terminally ill patients who have "no remaining approved treatment options." The group was founded in honor of Abigail Burroughs, who died at age 21 in 2001.
Her doctor believed the then-experimental drug Erbitux might halt the growth of cancerous tumors in her neck, but she was denied the use of the drug because it had not won approval from the FDA. The drug was approved in 2004, however.
"Approximately half a million Americans will die this year of cancer alone, and a substantial proportion will find themselves at some point without any remaining treatment alternatives," the lawyers argued.
In such cases, patients with the doctor's approval should be able to try some drugs that have shown promise in preliminary tests, the lawsuit argued.
But without comment, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal earlier in the day, according to the paper.
Source:Xinhua
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