On the recordMarch 13, 2018
I have listened to my friends on the minority talk about the reasons they are opposing this bill, and a normal piece of legislation that would have some merit didn't go through regular order, things of this sort. But, Mr. Speaker, when the house is burning down and you need the fire department, you don't ask if they followed proper procedure to get somebody out there to put out the fire. My brother had liver cancer at the age of 44. He had tried every conventional therapy known to modern medicine, and it wasn't working. Now, he had a brother, myself, who was a subcommittee chairman of the committee of jurisdiction over the FDA. I contacted the FDA, and we got him in a special protocol for an investigational drug that was under approval. It wasn't approved. And the doctors and the people at the FDA told my brother and his family: If it works, it is going to really help you. But if it doesn't, you are going to die sooner. Well, he was going to die anyway, Mr. Speaker. So he signed the informed consent and he took the drug and it didn't work, but he had that last shot. Now, I don't know what this debate about false hope is. When you have no hope, perhaps false hope is better than none at all. All this bill does is let people who have no other hope for conventional therapy, if a drug has at least passed stage one at the FDA approval process, and their doctor thinks it will help them, if they give an informed consent, they can try it.…
