The “Right to Try” in Colombia in Light of the Social State of Law

Abstract

The “Right to Try” was recognized through jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court through Sentence T-057 of 2015, since then, a debate began around this new fundamental right since it concerns two controversial points; on the one hand, there is the right to live in accordance with health and human dignity, while on the other hand, there is the exclusion regime of the Statutory Health Law, where it is mentioned that the procedures in the experimentation phase will not be financed with State resources.

Because of the above, this new fundamental right may find barriers in its application by those who require it since, so far, no parameters have been established for its effective application, generating a legal gap regarding this new alternative that patients diagnosed with serious diseases have. The purpose of this text is to illustrate to the academic community and in general, about the scope, definition, and content of the “Right to Try”, as this is a recent and innovative issue that highlights the tensions between principles and constitutional rights of the State Social Law.