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Chinese Firms Ignore Licensing Mandate For Stem Cell Therapy
scibri writes "Three months ago, China started to crack down on unlicensed stem cell treatments in the country. But it doesn't seem to have had much effect. Not one clinic has registered as required, and they continue to operate openly, offering unproven treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's."
What the Chinese clinics are doing is fine. If no other country is willing to conduct research and push this technology, then let them fall behind. If they want to let China have an advantage in this area of immense potential... then so be it. I see nothing wrong with what they are doing.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
I dunno. Seems like if China really wanted to "crack down" on something like rogue stem cell injections into dupes, it could do so. Think cultural revolution, Tiananmen square, one child-policy, internets censorship.
Well, that doesn't mean they're disproven. And as we all know, since Creationism hasn't been disproven, that means it's the touchstone for everything, including medical procedures.
So if you trust in God, and your own blessings, you will do whatever you want, because if God wanted you to do something else, God would protect you, perhaps by closing the clinic.
But if God leaves it open, it is the cure you need.
It's snake oil. None of the treatments work, or could possibly work. Employing them is about as unscientific as homeopathy; merely more cleverly disguised through the use of a subject that is not well-understood. In most cases, the injected stem cells probably die after a few days.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
You're misinformed. This is not embryonic stem cell RESEARCH, this is "therapy." As in "Hey, you've heard of stem cells? Well they're MAGIC! For $7000 us dollars, we'll inject you with ES cells and you'll get much better!"
As in 100% bullshit snake oil. You inject an embryonic stem cell into your blood, and your immune system is going to destroy those cells quickly, since they're not yours. And that's a best case scenario. Worst case scenario, you're immune system is compromised, and they start growing into tumors.
We are not to a point where ES are useful for therapies these "clinics" are hawking. No one credible disputes this. The people who would will also sell you some ground up rhino horn and various homeopathic medicines.
ES cells are useful for research. Stem cell research has not stagnated. We haven't outlawed it. There are burdensome restrictions on some types of ES research, but research is progressing. Induced pluripotent stem cells were just discovered (invented?) a few years ago as a direct result of ES research. That is, they take some of your skin cells, treat them, and they become ES like, but they're your cells so your immune system won't attack them. THAT will probably be useful for therapies if we can get the efficiencies high enough.
Anyway, while we're not spending enough on research and while some of the restrictions put on ES research are political rather than scientific, research on stem cells is progressing here. And these chinese firms are not legit, they're charlatans who should be locked up.
Gene therapy has nothing to do with stem cell therapy, and was not the topic of conversation.
You chose to forgoe totalitarian control in exchange for economic might. You got a more liberal (the classic sense) government. You now have fly-by-night unlicensed operators selling all kinds of useless and/or dangerous crap just like in the USA.
You could ratchet up the jackbootery to your previous levels; but then you'd just drive yourself into bankruptcy like the USSR.
and while those restrictions are a bit.. onerous.. it's those restrictions that allowed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in the first place. it's not like there was money that was suddenly restricted -- there wasn't money, and then there was, with restrictions.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
It seems kind of curious that it would become a major international issue that there are people doing stem cell treatments out there. You can go to Mexico or whatever and get whatever wacky treatment you want but Stem Cells are treated like an international outrage, like nuclear weapons proliferation.
Knowing the slashdot hivemind, you'll think this is complete bullshit, but here's an interesting reddit AMA about a paralyzed guy who went to China and got stem cell treatment and had good results:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/k1hts/i_am_a_28yr_old_american_who_went_to_china_to/
where government mandated licenses are routinely applied for, granted, and promptly ignored.
see your local highway at 5:00, or the local megacorp's environmental policy in action.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Wow. Jump out a window much?
(a) It's in the fucking article.
(b) Genetic therapy could work for some of these diseases, but the topic of discussion is stem cell therapy. That's used for repairing damaged organs. It can't fix developmental problems within tissue that isn't being removed.
(c) I am a biologist and I have worked in a lab studying autistic spectrum disorders.
Have a nice day.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
For a big ol' nasty 'communist' dictatorship, their government sure seems to be a real pushover. Well, at least these stem cell snake charmers are not a bunch of anti government subversives.
You commented on "Chinese Firms Ignore Licensing Mandate For Stem Cell Therapy" that stem cell therapy was "smoke and mirrors" (well words to that effect). Could you explain why it seems to work on horses? Or is the whole article fake?
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22998/
I said the treatments in question were nonsense, not that stem cell therapy is bad. This is like prescribing a cancer drug for a broken femur: powerful, but irrelevant.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
These are the clinics where you will be getting your unlicensed cybernetic enhancements in the future.
Yet again a Gibson prediction to become reality.
They make me laugh.
Perhaps "The Law" in China means one thing for businesspeople (which these people are... they're certainly not scientists advancing research in any meaningful way), but another thing for dissidents like Liu Xiaobo?
Once again, it's -not- so big a deal that the Gov't requires rego of such clinics...
But wait until Patients demand it, & see how fast it happens... :-)
No patients, no $$$.
The major differences are that the horse studies were conducted using scientific process, produced results, and the whole process was peer-reviewed. These "clinics" on the other hand are the complete opposite. The only similarity is that both used stem cells.