NEWS: Drugs denied:The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by two advocacy groups arguing that dying patients have a constitutional right to access experimental drugs that have not received regulatory approval.
The two groups sued the US Food and Drug Administration in 2003, seeking greater access for terminally ill patients to medicines that have cleared early, limited safety tests, but have yet to be approved.
The lawsuit argued that the FDA's policy to withhold early-stage experimental drugs from terminally ill patients violates the constitution by depriving them of life and liberty without due process.
Without any comment or recorded dissent, the justices refused to review a US appeals court ruling in August that there is no constitutional right of access to experimental drugs for the terminally ill. The FDA requires a wide battery of tests, before it will approve a new drug. Manufacturers say the process can take up to 10 years.
Red card:A professional footballer has been banned for two years for refusing to take a drugs test, but his identity is being kept secret for fear he may harm himself. The player, who is not well-known, flatly refused to provide a sample of urine when testers from anti-doping agency UK Sport visited his club. He was suspended for two years by a Football Association disciplinary commission, and under normal circumstances the governing body would make his name public.
Under the FA's agreement with UK Sport, however, there is a clause which states the player will not be named if the disciplinary commission determines there is a risk of self-harm. UK Sport reviewed the FA's decision not to name him and agreed that there was a risk to the player's mental and physical health.
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"It is worrying to see how many people feel so unprepared and misinformed about becoming a parent."
- Belinda Phipps, chief executive of Britain's National Childbirth Trust, commenting on a survey it conducted that found, among other things, that parents gravely underestimated how much free time they would have following the birth of a child.