Fighting for a Last Chance at Life
But even as advances in areas like stem cells and genetics generate greater hope for experimental therapies, there is little consensus on how and when to provide them to dying patients whose lives could be prolonged, or shortened, by trying them.
Insurance companies typically do not pay for drugs that are part of a not-quite-finished scientific process. But even affluent families like the Thompsons find themselves pleading simply for the right to buy a drug, with institutions and individuals that often seem to them to have no logic — and sometimes no heart.
Doctors worry about instilling false hope and doing unnecessary harm. Companies fear damaging a drug’s chance of winning approval from the Food and Drug Administration if a patient suffers a bad reaction. The F.D.A. itself does not want patients to bypass clinical trials, which require that some participants receive a placebo to determine reliably whether a drug works.
I am unsure why people should not be able to choose to use experimental treatments. It shouldn't matter if they have a terminal illness or not. Isn't it our bodies? Shouldn't we decide? From a doctor's or company's perspective I can see the problem with liability/lawsuits. Which brings me back to the idea of a Universal Waiver - an internationally recognized agreement that someone could sign if they wanted to take an experimental drug or try an experimental treatment. They would have agree to not sue under any circumstances (even if fraud was involved).
Anyone think this would work or is possible within current legal systems?
