The young lady has terminal cancer. The only drug that might be able to save her life has not as yet been cleared by the FDA. But the FDA has said it would grant her a "compassionate exemption" (more about that in a moment), which would allow her to legally take the drug. The drug company has said it will not make the drug available to her, no reasons given.
Which, in a free society it ought have the right to do, inhumane though it be. The company is owned by individuals and they have a Constitutional right to deal with their products as they see fit. It is surmised that the company is (a) concerned about a possible lawsuit by the young lady should the drug not work, but that concern can be handled with an exculpatory agreement it could sign with her; and (b) concerned that its reputation, and the reputation of the drug, will be adversely affected should it not work, resulting in the loss of substantial future income. Perhaps. Perhaps the reputation of the company will be enhanced if it acts in a compassionate manner.
The compassionate exemption that the FDA says it would give her is what is most wrong with this story. The Government should have no say as to whether someone can lawfully take a medical drug. That it can do so is tantamount to its having a death panel..literally decreeing who may live and who may not. Although the Administration claims there is no death panel under Obamacare, that is patently untrue. A panel is specifically set up with the explicit power to decide whether surgeries and other medical procedures for particular patients are worth the cost. How much, I wonder, is a life worth?
Where in the world, and the Constitution, the Government finds its authority to play God, is beyond me. Why in the world any one of us would go along with it for one second, whether we be patient, physician or drug manufacturer, is also beyond me.
The colonists revolted for far less reason.
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