News Archive

In an interview for Newsweek, IU McKinney Law Professor Nicolas Terry commented on a recent decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirming that hospitals cannot be forced to issue Ivermectin to patients.

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Allen Gahl, on behalf of his uncle, John Zingsheim, against Aurora Health Care in October 2021. The lawsuit claimed that Zingsheim, who was put on a ventilator at the time due to COVID-19-related complications, was not provided Ivermectin by hospital staff after being requested.

This recent decision upholds an appeals court ruling from 2022 that healthcare providers are under no duty to administer treatments desired by patients, and courts have no authority to compel treatments.

Professor Terry, executive director of IU McKinney Hall Center for Law and Health, told Newsweek that the Constitution indeed allows for a refusal to accept treatment—such as in death or dying cases—but no positive rights.

He added that multiple lawsuits have also failed in court. "Whether providers who choose to use an off-label drug is a more nuanced issue, although with the evidence base against this and other off-label treatments for COVID-19, I would expect most courts to rule against providers who use them in, say, medical malpractice cases,” he told Newsweek.

Professor Terry is Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at IU McKinney, where he teaches healthcare and health policy courses. He is one of the permanent bloggers at the Bill of Health blog, a host of “The Week in Health Law” podcast at TWIHL.com, and @nicolasterry on twitter.