Guest Speaker Udo Schuklenk: The Moral Case for Granting Catastrophically Ill Patients the Right to Access Unregistered Medical Interventions

Using the case of Ebola Virus Disease as an example, Professor Udo Schüklenk from Queen’s University provides moral reasons for why patients at high risk for death are entitled to access unregistered medical interventions (UMI) without having to enroll in randomized placebo controlled trials. He will discuss, and reject, counter arguments both of a paternalistic nature as well as of a harm-to-others nature. A number of jurisdictions permit and facilitate such access under emergency circumstances. Should patients only be permitted access to UMI after trials investigating the interventions are fully recruited? It is argued that regulatory regimes must not prioritise trial recruitment over patient access, even if this results in foreseeable drug research and development delays. Prof. Schüklenk concludes with an argument on how the moral duty to rescue would impact on others’ obligations to oblige patients seeking emergency access to unregistered medical interventions.