At our recent Liberty Forum, one of the really exciting panels introduced a concept called “dual-tracking” which would let patients voluntarily choose to use experimental drugs that have passed Phase 1 of the FDA’s safety tests, without waiting for the Phase 2 clinical trials that can keep drugs off market for years. Our senior fellow Deroy Murdock presents the idea in his syndicated column for Scripps-Howard. See: “Americans Deserve Experimental Drug Choice.” Deroy writes:
This concept would shield people like Abigail Burroughs and Anna Tomalis who pass away because federal functionaries protect them to death from drugs deemed more dangerous than the lethal maladies that finally kill them.
“Every American has the right to medical self-defense,” says Scott Riccio, founder of Accelerate Progress, which promotes Free-to-Choose Medicine. “If an attacker breaks into your house, you have the right to defend yourself by whatever means necessary. But if cancer invades your body, we allow a faceless, distant bureaucracy to say, ‘No, no. You may not use this drug to fight for your life.’ How bizarre.”
The ultimate beauty of this life-saving idea is that it also simply, elegantly, and inexpensively expands individual freedom and personal sovereignty: See your doctor. Then, if you choose to take an experimental drug, do so. If not, don’t.
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