Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

We do allow terminally ill patients to take part in unproven/experimental treatments that haven't been approved for general use.

Here's a recent example of a bill passing to allow this, but it's been allowed in various forms before this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/0...




Right to try laws are pretty recent, and they don't completely fix the problem. Not all states have them yet either.


Even before right to try laws, terminally ill patients were the preferred clinical trial subject. It's much easier to justify putting a risky chemical into a person who's about to die. Unfortunately, this biases the statistics you get, making it less clear whether the treatment would be helpful in less terminal popuations.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: