Frequently Searched

Is California Doing All It Can to Save Lives?

April 6, 2022

There’s a new treatment for a rare disease. It’s custom-made for you, based on your own genetic profile. It offers you hope, but you can’t access it, even though your doctor says it could save your life. The reason? Federal regulations are ancient by today’s standards, and they’re not designed to allow these new, genetic treatments.

California has an opportunity to solve this problem—and save lives—by passing a new law called Right to Try for Individualized Treatments.

The federal barriers to lifesaving treatment are not hypothetical. Take the case of Keira Riley, a young Arizona girl who was diagnosed with a highly progressive and rare genetic brain disease. Her family was forced to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and move to Italy for several months to obtain a gene therapy treatment that doesn’t fall within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) outdated clinical trial system. Had the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments been in place when Keira needed it, she may have been able to access that treatment at home. Today, Keira is thriving, and her family is advocating for the reform so that other patients facing rare diseases in the United States can access these types of promising, innovative treatments.

California ought to take charge on this life-or-death issue.

Read the rest of the op-ed at The Orange County Register.

Naomi Lopez is the Director of Healthcare Policy at the Goldwater Institute.

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!