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Consumer Guide To Stem Cell Clinics
Penguinsh- writes "Patients seeking stem cell treatments now have a guide to the various clinics purporting to offer such treatments. Not exactly a Zagat or Michelin, but much more objective information from qualified experts than was available before in one place. Created by the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the guide was the brainchild of a task force convened by former ISSCR President Irving Weissman of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine."
#1. Don't fucking go to one unless you want to be fleeced and risk death.
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Ya' think?
Given that it doesn't list one clinic.
Try a 'report' on how to query clinics. etc. And old in some places, at that.
Unfortunately, your consumer guide fails to take into account the fact that many (all?) of these clinics' customers have no alternative except death.
FRY: Stem cells- aren't those controversial?
PROFESSOR: In your time, yes. Now we have adult stem cells, harvested from healthy adults, whom I killed for their stem cells!
I have some bad mental imagery associated with the phrase "Stem Cell Clinic".
Every time I hear that term, I think about the scenes in one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" books, where the antagonist is quite literally growing his army in vats, one glob of goo at a time.
Rooms full of vats, writhing and squirming as unformed body parts start to coalesce. An arm flailing out of the goo...an eye watching you from the corner of a vat, consciousness already apparent in it's solitary gaze.
For some odd reason, I also associate this mental imagery with what must surely go on in the kitchen of my old elementary school's cafeteria.
“Fetal stem cells? Aren’t those controversial?” – Fry
“In your time, yes. But nowadays, shut up!
Besides, these are adult stem cells, harvested from perfectly healthy adults, whom I killed for their stem cells.” – Professor
A count of how many people have actually been saved by their treatments? Oh, wait. That would be the same for all....
My sister had experemental stem cell treatment back in the 1980's. Back then it was done in a hospital, but everything was very much kept as a secret. It was thought that if the general populance became aware of the reseach, there would be a general negative response. I wont say too much, to protect the doctors invloved, but I would say the children in that trail have had a better quality of life then children with the same condition not in the trial.
The unproven and private nature of these enterprises may be because many are scams. But I would guess there are some genuine doctors who simply want to conduct experemental treatment without being vilified by religious nut's claiming that they should not play god. Also private funding can be easier than govenment funding, if you live in a country where the government is not on board with this kind of research.
If you could just walk into a hospital and say, this is my body and I want this procedure, then these small clinics and scam artits would have no market. Unfortunantly medical research is mired by politics and religious activists.
Consumer Guide To Stem Cell Clinics
Stem Cells: The Cannibal's Caviar!
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I always wanted some teeth growing at the base of my spine.
Seriously, lets exploit some desperate people for basic reseach... sigh.
*insert pithy sig here*
Life is cheap. Beyond that, the western world has no sense of risk anymore. Ohes noes, an adult that has all the ability to do basic research might be taken advantage of...color me not caring.
I have a progressive disease that will eventually kill me. I spent a year in the hospital along with rehabilitation that went along with all of this a decade back...I was told I was most likely not going to live as long as I have. I've had two other episodes that required emergency surgery in the last three years. All because of a genetic defect that the repair of would require repairing the genes in stem cells and a brief therapy...there have been two deaths that I know of in the attempt to cure it this way, and both gave a LOT of knowledge about how to go about this sort of treatment.
At this point in my life, I know what it takes to keep this in check and can probably get away with another 10 years before it becomes a real problem again (actually my case has changed the treatment of the disease somewhat) but when it does and I can no longer function to the ability I am accustom to (a truncated life is better than one where I'm not living a real life)...but when it happen, I'll sign up for whatever treatment is available.
But some ethicists still consider this explorations...including armchair ethicists like you...
I have a rare immune condition and I am actually being considered as a candidate, by my doctors, for a bone marrow transplant (also known as a "Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation").
I just can't wrap my head around that there are clinics that people can just go to, as consumers, to "get stem cell transplants". There's an enormous amount of preparation, planning and work-up involved. What I have learned, so far, is that the entire procedure would take a number of years (yes, years) from "start diet, checkups, health maintenance and preparative drugs", to "chemo to kill immune system", to "actually transplanting the cells", to "full recovery of immune function". The actual procedure would take place in the cancer ward of a large, well-known, esteemed hospital by actual doctors employed by the public healthcare system, require a hospital stay of 4-6 weeks and frequent hospital admittances for several months afterwards.
A stem cell transplant is, in the very best case, a last-ditch effort procedure that always carries a risk of fatality. It is as serious and carries as many potential complications as an organ transplant. I just can't understand how there are places that offer this willy-nilly as an elective procedure.
Some people want the issue of stem cell research to be explored. But exploring an issue like this requires a discussion of the ethics involved. That's good because a free and honest debate can give form to a general consensus. ...
Some people want the science of stem cells to be explored. But only science in its truest form can provide useful knowledge, because it does not assign valuations of bad or good. Within science, knowledge of stem cell therapy benefits are valued as highly as knowledge of stem cell therapy failures. Philosophy only proves there are no certainties.