[JURIST] Indiana Governor Mike Pence [official website] signed House Bill 1065 [legislative materials, text] into law Tuesday to allow terminally ill patients access to experimental drugs before they have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [official website]. The bill, approved by the Senate [JURIST report] last week, applies to qualified patients who have been diagnosed with a terminal disease or condition and do not have comparable or satisfactory treatment options available to them. The patients will have access to potentially life-saving drugs and experimental treatments that have passed phase one of the three-phase FDA approval process that takes roughly 10 to 15 years to complete.The “right to try” legislation is similar to legislation passed by Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Louisiana and Arizona.

The right to die [JURIST news archive] for terminally ill patients has also been a widely debated topic in the US and abroad. Vermont, Montana, New Mexico and Washington are among the states that allow assisted suicide. In February California physicians and a cancer patient filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging a state-ban on physician-assisted suicide for mentally competent terminally ill patients. Also in February a similar lawsuit was filed [JURIST report] in New York to seek a declaration that physician-assisted suicide is not illegal under New York state law. The Supreme Court of Canada in February struck down the country’s ban [JURIST report] on medically assisted suicide.