How the ‘right-to-try’ movement muscled its way into Washington
WASHINGTON — Five years ago, the phrase “right to try” wasn’t yet an inkling in the minds of its staunchest advocates. Today, the pithy shorthand for the campaign to get dying patients access to experimental treatments has been slapped on bumper stickers, emblazoned on T-shirts, and uttered by some of the most powerful figures in Washington.
At the White House, President Trump has made clear he sees the issue as a priority. And on Capitol Hill — otherwise largely paralyzed on health care policy — Republicans are working on legislation that could fundamentally alter the way in which terminally ill patients can gain access to drugs.
Whether and when a bill will ultimately land on the president’s desk, or even what it will look like, is anyone’s guess. But the past three months have made one thing clear: The modern “right-to-try” campaign — and the scrappy libertarian movement behind it — is closer to legislative reform on this issue than ever before.
Its advance has come despite objections that any legislation could do more harm than good, leaving patients who are desperate for a cure vulnerable to exploitative claims or overhyped therapies.
“Something’s going to get passed,” said Art Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center and a critic of right-to-try laws. “The question is, can
