O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 31-52-2 (2019)

Legislative findings

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) The General Assembly finds and declares that:

(1) The process of approval for investigational drugs, biological products, and devices in the United States protects future patients from premature, ineffective, and unsafe medications and treatments over the long run, but the process often takes many years;

(2) Patients who have terminal illnesses do not have the luxury of waiting until an investigational drug, biological product, or device receives final approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration;

(3) Patients who have terminal illnesses have a fundamental right to pursue the preservation of their own lives by accessing available investigational drugs, biological products, and devices;

(4) The use of available investigational drugs, biological products, and devices is a decision that should be made by a patient with a terminal illness in consultation with the patient’s health care provider; and

(5) The decision to use an investigational drug, biological product, or device should be made with full awareness by the patient and the patient’s family of the potential risks, benefits, and consequences.

(b) It is the intent of the General Assembly to allow for patients with terminal illnesses to use potentially life-saving investigational drugs, biological products, and devices.

History

Code 1981, § 31-52-2, enacted by Ga. L. 2016, p. 345, § 1/HB 34.