DC Circuit: No Right to Life Saving Drugs

At How Appealing, Howard Bashman links to an en banc ruling today by the D.C. Circuit holding that a terminally ill patient does not have a right to access potentially life-saving drugs not yet fully approved by the government.

Apparently, there is a “right” to access contraceptive drugs and force pharmacists to provide them, but those “rights” do not extend to potentially life saving drugs. Here is a gem from the dissent:

In the end, it is startling that the oft-limited rights to marry, to fornicate, to have children, to control the education and upbringing of children, to perform varied sexual acts in private, and to control one’s own body even if it results in one’s own death or the death of a fetus have all been deemed fundamental rights covered, although not always protected, by the Due Process Clause, but the right to try to save one’s life is left out in the cold despite its textual anchor in the right to life.

Lyle Denniston has a new post at the SCOTUS blog discussing this case and indicating that it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Volokh Conspiracy also has several posts discussing this case, Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach.