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Stem Cell Firm May Have Administered Unproven Treatments
ananyo writes "With Texas pouring millions of dollars into developing adult stem-cell treatments, doctors there are already injecting paying customers with unproven preparations, supplied by an ambitious new company. Celltex Therapeutics 'multiplies and banks' stem cells derived from people's abdominal fat and its facility in Sugar Land opened in December 2011 and houses the largest stem-cell bank in the United States. But Nature has uncovered evidence that the company is involved in the clinical use of the cells on US soil, which the FDA has viewed as illegal in other cases."
OK, so forget the wider internet. Why doesn't the FDA maintain a website containing the approved and known-safe drugs, the experimental drugs, the known-dangerous drugs, etc. The doctor recommends the treatment, the patient goes to the FDA website (which the doctor is required to tell them about) and gets all the information, now the patient can make an informed decision.
You can make all the arguments you want about young children or patients with mental disabilities, but that doesn't justify depriving normal adults of a decision about their own medical treatment.