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Consumer Guide To Stem Cell Clinics

Posted by timothy on from the and-such-small-portions dept.

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."

8 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. I have a consumer guide too. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 3, Funny

    #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
    1. Re:I have a consumer guide too. by worip · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The desperate few who may think that this is the option of last resort (terminally ill, insane, etc.) may eventually pave the way for this to become safe and mainstream.

      --
      A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
  2. Review of said guide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unfortunately, your consumer guide fails to take into account the fact that many (all?) of these clinics' customers have no alternative except death.

    1. Re:Review of said guide by MadKeithV · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Being terminal might be an excuse for taking additional risks, but most (if not all) of the current "stem cell treatments" are just unfounded snake-oil designed to prey on desperate people, with not a single good reason to believe there is any chance it will make you better rather than worse. They might as well go for homeopathy or faith healing, except that those do NOT carry a risk of actually making things worse.

    2. Re:Review of said guide by Cryacin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mate,

      If I had a kid who had a nasty and currently incurable disease, I'd most certainly risk jail, or even death myself to give them a shot. After it gets to the point of death, all bets are off. Seriously. How far would you go for someone you loved?

      In this case, at least it brings some semblence of regulation to an industry that has arisen from an environment born from holier than thou moral beliefs infiltrating politics, rather than hard science.

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
  3. Futurama [paraphrased] by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!

    1. Re:Futurama [paraphrased] by zarzu · · Score: 2, Informative
      the original quote goes like this:

      “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

  4. Bad Imagery... by Anachragnome · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.