This could sometimes include giving them access to promising non-approved therapy. Second, vulnerable people, such as those who are catastrophically ill, deserve at least as much protection against potential harm as others. The notion of consent should not be an excuse to allow exposure to unpredictable physical and financial harm. Even those who are in the final stages of the disease can be seriously harmed by taking non-approved drugs.
Harm can include earlier death but also seriously increased suffering.
This is of major importance, both for future patients who might need a drug and for the entire population, who pay for the use and sometimes also for the development of drugs. Spending money on worthless or even harmful drugs is depriving patients of other care. Our resources are definitely limited. Although more research is needed on this subject, it seems to me that legal liability is not the central issue. Solving legal liability is clearly not sufficient to create an ethically sound system.