Shawnee ? Rep. Brett Hildabrand, R-Shawnee, has been researching laws now enacted in five states that allow terminally ill patients to use medications that haven’t received federal approval.

Over the past year, he says, he has come to the realization that Kansas needs to be the next state to follow suit. He said he plans to propose Kansas’ own “right to try” bill at the upcoming 2015 legislative session, which begins Monday.

Hildabrand said the government shouldn’t stand in the way of a person’s decision making that could potentially extend their own life and the lives of other people with terminal illnesses.

“It should be up to the individual,” he said. “Government bureaucracy shouldn’t get in the way of that.”

Five other states — Missouri, Colorado, Michigan, Louisiana and Arizona — already have approved similar legislation. Hildabrand said he seriously started looking at the legislation last year after Colorado passed its law.

He said he thinks the push in 2014 to establish these laws was sparked by the film “Dallas Buyers Club,” a 2013 film in which the main character works to help AIDS patients get the medication they need that was not approved by the U.S. government after he himself is diagnosed with the disease.

The initiative to create state laws addressing the issue is being led by the Arizona-based nonprofit Goldwater Institute, which says the effort is designed to allow patients access to investigational drugs that have completed basic safety testing. Hildabrand said much of his research into the initiative has shown how hard it is for experimental or investigational drugs to get federal approval.

“In researching it, I found that the approval process for new drugs can take decades,” Hildabrand said.

Hildabrand said the “right to try” bill not only allows patients to try other methods to extend their lives, but allows drug companies to advance their studies more rapidly so that more people could potentially be helped.

“This is in the best interest of Kansans,” Hildabrand said. “Especially some of our most vulnerable Kansans.”