By Steve Buckstein
[1]
Oregon hopefully will join thirteen* states that have enacted Right to Try [2] legislation, allowing terminally ill patients to try experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA.
In several states, the face of Right to Try efforts was a child. Fourteen-year-old Diego Morris was honorary chairman of the Arizona campaign that saw 78 percent of voters approve Right to Try last November. Diagnosed with a deadly form of bone cancer when he was eleven, Diego and his family had to move to London for treatment with a drug approved there, but not in the United States. Now cancer free, Diego visited the Oregon Capitol in February [3] to meet with legislators. When asked what he would say to opponents of Right to Try, Diego answered, “Wait until they find themselves in my situation, and then ask them.”
Five-year-old Jordan McLinn [4] handed the pen to Indiana Governor Mike Pence when he signed that state’s Right to Try law on March 24. Jordan has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a terminal illness that without experimental treatment may kill him before he turns 20.
No doubt some Oregon children could benefit from the Right to Try. House Bill 2300 [5] would give adults that right, but not children under age 15 [6]. Those who favor Right to Try might let their state legislators know that faced with a terminal illness, children should have the same Right to Try as adults do.
*Montana became the 13th state to enact a Right to Try law last Tuesday.
Steve Buckstein is founder and Senior Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.