Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, I have heard people say that they don't want to support a bill that makes things worse. We have people who are terminal, whose life expectancy is measured in months, not in decades, and how do you make things worse?

I said last week, and I repeat it today, that if I--if, and I am not, thank God--but if I were faced with one of these heart-rendering situations, I would take any risk, including injecting monkey urine, if that meant I could spend a few more days, months, or years with my children.

I think many people are in that same boat, and the American people deserve a right to try. When we were doing our hearings on this, we had an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing where Lieutenant Commander Matthew Bellina, who graduated from Virginia Tech in my district and served in the United States Navy, testified before us. He said, in the conclusion of his comments: ``I know that it is probably too late for me, and I have made my peace with that. I need to know before I die that, if my children find themselves in this unenviable position, this Nation that I proudly served will respect their liberties and their right to make their own decisions about their medical treatments.''

He suffered from ALS, as I said. I have had three friends during my lifetime die of that: Ray Robrecht, my predecessor a couple terms back in the Virginia House of Delegates; Julie Mullins, whose family I have known for decades; and Mike Ahern, who was connected with the United States Senate through his sister. All of these folks were people who lived in Salem County or Roanoke County, and they all died from ALS. They were all brave people. They should have had the right to try to see if they could make an improvement for others.

Even more poignant are my family friends who lost both a grandparent and their mother to Huntington's chorea. I was their family lawyer. I did their will. I would like to believe, and I know they would have liked the option, that their mother would have chosen the right to try, knowing that, even if it failed, it might help another generation because, as you know, Huntington's chorea is a genetically transmitted disease.

So I do not understand why people are afraid of letting people try who have no other hope, whose life is going to be cut short, without taking that Hail Mary pass. And so I hope that everyone will support this reasonable, measured effort to let people have a choice and a right to try.

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