*Written by Zach Burres On the evening of December 1st, the University of Arizona’s STRIVE club hosted a speaker event called “Right to Try.” There, Christina Sandefur, VP of policy at the Goldwater Institute, delivered a talk to students on terminal patients’ right to use experimental
Suppose Congress passed a law requiring that all restaurant meals include broccoli and okra, whether the customer wanted them or not. Restaurants must also charge the same price for all meals, regardless of whether the customer ordered a small salad or a large steak. And
The FDA’s Presumption to Regulate Keeps Valuable Products off the Market The Christian Science Monitor recently published an article on the recent FDA hearings about genetically engineered (GE) salmon: “U.S. government food regulators pondered Monday whether to say, for the first time, that it's OK to market
“You can’t handle the truth!” That’s the federal government’s latest message to Americans seeking to learn the content of their own DNA. Recent advances in biotechnology have allowed private companies to offer affordable genetic testing directly to consumers, to help them determine their risks of developing problems
A California county recently banned fast-food restaurants from including toys in their kids' meals. The goal of this new ban is to reduce rampant obesity in today's youth by breaking "the link between unhealthy food and prizes." On the face of it, the effects of
Health care reform vital for all Americans Daily Illini University of Illinois Dear Editors, In your recent editorial, “Health care reform vital for all Americans,” you applaud the proposed healthcare bill for its efforts to “reform the broken health care system,” but you never mention who broke it in
Millions of Americans choose to continue smoking despite known health risks. Presumably, the value they get from smoking is (rightly or wrongly) worth the risk to them. But for a short time, it appeared that smokers had a healthy third alternative: electronic cigarettes. The electronic cigarette
When we hear the word “regulation,” most people immediately think of the government. After all, the government regulates nearly every industry that we rely on in our everyday lives, such as banking, aviation, education, medicine, and countless others. But in addition to government regulation, there are
An article in the latest issue of the Undercurrent examines the cultural vilification of Big Pharma. The piece argues that pharmaceutical companies deserve their profits because they invest a tremendous amount of time and energy researching and developing their products. In this post, we look
In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, the Food and Drug Act was passed, and the FDA was born. Founded on the premise that consumers can't distinguish between a bottle of cough medicine and poison--or between a scientific drug study and an advertisement for a
