Towards A Medical Revolution

 Science is discovering new therapies to treat killer diseases, but a labyrinth of government bureaucracy denies Americans access to these lifesaving medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the backbone of a corrupt medical system that must be radically changed if we are to save our bodies from the ravages of aging and aging-related disease.

One example of the FDA's actions is its prohibition of ribavirin. The Foundation has been battling the FDA for 12 years to get it to approve drugs such as ribavirin. A recent study showed that the combination of ribavirin and the FDA-approved drug interferon is 10 times more effective than interferon alone when treating hepatitis C.

It now appears that the FDA may soon approve ribavirin, but that has not stopped FDA enforcement agents from attacking offshore companies that ship ribavirin to Americans for their personal use.

We believe the best way of initiating a medical revolution is to establish a Life Extension Medical Center in the U.S. There are so many therapies that the FDA has been suppressing that a facility that uses "unapproved" medicines to save American lives would receive overwhelming media attention.

Americans given death sentences by the medical establishment would be put into long-term remissions at a Life Extension Medical Center. We would finally have the proof to show who has been responsible for the needless suffering and premature death of tens of millions of Americans.

A grass-roots revolution of this type would lead to other medical centers, which would also offer the best available treatments in the world to dying patients, based upon science rather than dogma or authority. As this medical revolution spreads, it would eventually force Congress to make radical changes in the FDA that would, finally, enable that agency to act on behalf of the best terests of the American people rather than the pharmaceutical industry.

It is important to keep in mind the rallying cries of history that bear directly on our challenge:
"We shall never prevent the abuse of power if we are not prepared to limit power in a way which occasionally may also prevent its use for desirable purposes."
-Friedreich Hayek
The Road to Serfdom

"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it."
-Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence

William Faloon
Vice President
Life Extension Foundation