What kind of person could deny another the right to try to save their life? Arizona State Representative Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, says he is just that kind of person.
Mendez, who touts his compassion and describes himself as a Secular Humanist, voted against HCR 2005, sponsored by Rep. Phil Lovas, R-Peoria. The bill would allow manufacturers, health care institutions and physicians to make investigational drugs accessible to terminally ill patients as long as the drugs have completed the first phase of clinical trials.
Mendez says he opposes the bill due to his support for the FDA. In a statement to 3TV, Mendez stated, “I vote against this bill not just to keep untested drugs out of people’s hands for their safety, but to support the FDA in their effort of protecting and promoting our shared public health through the overseeing of the testing of new drugs.”
According to 3TV, Mendez concluded, “If we provide almost unfettered legal access to experimental drugs by terminally ill patients, we will be radically altering the conduct of clinical cancer research.”
However, those patients and their advocates say the American public is quickly losing control of their healthcare and options.
According to 3TV, “no opponents of the bill spoke at the Senate committee hearing Wednesday, the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association is against the proposed law.”
According to the Goldwater Institute, the FDA’s multiyear federal approval process currently in place means that many sick Americans die waiting for life-saving medications to become available, even though these treatments already exist.
The Goldwater Institute says that the reform, “known as the “Right to Try” Act, would empower terminally ill patients under the care of licensed doctors to access experimental drugs that have passed basic safety tests but whose efficacy is not yet conclusive. Currently, it takes nearly a decade and up to $1 billion to shepherd life-saving treatments through the FDA approval process — time the sickest Americans simply do not have to waste.”
500,000 Americans died last year from cancer alone, with thousands more dying of other terminal illnesses, reports the Goldwater Institute. “Many dying patients who have exhausted traditional treatment options attempt to enroll in clinical trials, but the vast majority are denied access because their illnesses have progressed too much or there are other complicating factors,” according to the Goldwater Institute. “40% of cancer patients ask for access to clinical trials each year, but only 3% of those dying from terminal illnesses ultimately gain admission.”
Mendez does have compassion for some, and he opposes what he says is the GOP’s “blatant misunderstanding of how basic healthcare serves to deter poverty” in their desire to “rip away AHCCCS healthcare assistance from all able-bodied adults after a five year lifetime cap of assistance.”
Obviously to Mendez, able-bodied adults are more worthy of society’s compassion and care than those that are dying.
Last May, Mendez “turned a Tuesday afternoon prayer into something much more,” according to the Huffington Post. He was given the opportunity to lead his fellow legislators in prayer prior to the House of Representatives’ afternoon session. Mendez asked his fellow lawmakers to look around the room instead of bowing their heads.
“Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads,” Mendez said, according to the Phoenix New Times. “I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.”
“Mendez invoked the words of Dr. Carl Sagan, the late astronomer whose words on atheism have lasted for decades,” according to HuffPo. Mendez said, “Carl Sagan once wrote, ‘For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.'”