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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: AZ VOTERS TO DETERMINE TERMINAL PATIENTS’ RIGHTS

October 7, 2014

Contact: Michael Kelley

(602) 633-8965

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: AZ VOTERS TO DETERMINE TERMINAL PATIENTS’ RIGHTS

Right to Try bill passes AZ legislature, goes on November ballot for voter approval

 

Arizona voters will get the opportunity this November to ensure patients dying of terminal illnesses have the right to access potentially-lifesaving medications, now that the Senate passed Right to Try yesterday with a bipartisan vote. 

 

“It’s about the option,” says Tracy Canter, a Tucson resident who lost her mother Toni to breast cancer in spite of an effective treatment in trials at the time. “Why would you oppose somebody wanting to choose something over just laying down and dying?”

 

Designed by the Goldwater Institute, Right to Try cuts through the daunting bureaucratic process dying patients have to endure if they want a chance at saving themselves. The law would enable their doctors to treat them with medications that have completed the basic safety testing phase of the Food and Drug Administration’s drug approval process.

 

“This is about saving lives,” said Darcy Olsen, Goldwater Institute President and CEO. “People know that when their mortality is hanging in the balance, they deserve the right to try these potentially life-saving drugs.”

 

The Right to Try Act is also moving forward in Colorado, Louisiana and Missouri, as lawmakers and citizens unite to slash the time terminally ill patients have to wait to gain access to these treatments, which can take over a decade to make it to market under the current system.

 

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To schedule an interview please contact Michael Kelley at the Goldwater Institute at (602) 633-8965 or mkelley@goldwaterinstitute.org. The Goldwater Institute has an in-house VideoLink studio for rapid cable hook-up if needed.

 

 

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