WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to review whether terminally ill patients should be given experimental drugs.
The court let stand a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which said dying patients have no constitutional right to drugs not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration, The Washington Post reported.
The challenge was brought by the Washington Legal Foundation and the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs on behalf of Abigail Burroughs, who was diagnosed at 19 and died at 21 of a form of cancer rare in her age group.
"Petitioners contend that a terminally ill patient with no approved treatment options has a right to decide for himself, in consultation with his own doctor, whether to take a drug that the FDA concedes is safe and promising enough to be tested in substantial numbers of human subjects,'' the groups argued.
