Supreme Court Rejects Right to Life of the Terminally Ill

[ARI Media Feed]

By David Holcberg from The Ayn Rand Institute Stories,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Supreme Court Rejects Right to Life of the Terminally Ill

By David Holcberg (January 16, 2008)

It is disgraceful that the Supreme Court declined to consider whether terminal patients have a right to use drugs not yet approved by the FDA.

The purpose of the Constitution is not to grant government the power to regulate our lives, but to protect our rights by limiting the power of government.

Terminal patients--indeed any patients--have a moral and constitutional right to try any medicine or therapy that they believe would alleviate their suffering, improve their health or extend their lives. To deny this right is to deny the right to life and liberty, and amounts to a death sentence to thousands of terminally ill individuals who could benefit from experimental drugs.

The government should have no power to keep drugs off the market and no right to forbid us from exercising our judgment and taking a drug we believe would benefit us.

Hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will consider this life-and-death issue in its next opportunity. Real lives are at stake, and for many, time is running out.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/archives/003188.html