WIJ WILLEN DJ BALCI TERUG
Do terminally ill patients who have
exhausted all other available, government-approved treatment options have a constitutional
right to experimental treatment that may prolong their lives? On May 2, 2006, a divided panel
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a startling opinion, Abigail
Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs v. Eschenbach, held "Yes."
The plaintiffs, Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs and Washington
Legal Foundation, sought to enjoin the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") from refusing
to allow the sale of investigational new drugs that had not yet been FDA-approval for
marketing.