Stem cell tourism

Main Article Content

José Luis Pérez Requejo, Dr.
Justo Aznar Lucea, Dr.

Abstract




Never before seriously ill patients with chronic or incurable disea- ses have been so exposed to unscrupulous medical organizations that, taking advantage of their logical distress and worry, promise miracle cures and treatments and charge them huge amounts of money for procedures with no guarantee, no real benefits and, even worse, with serious risks to their health.


This paper discusses some cases of patients who paid with their health, often irreparably, or catastrophically, the effects of supposedly advanced therapy centers with stem cells. Several countries are mentioned, not always as remote, which offer and practice any of these treatments, most often by direct and aggressive marketing to patients or their families, showing real or fictional accounts of other patients, but without the previous studies and scientific papers that endorse their supposed beneficial results. In this article we discuss some useful hints and international guidelines to recognize and avoid them.


Also, we discussed in detail the specific reasons why most doctors and clinics doubt about the competence and ethical reasons of these centers and discourage those “medical tourism” trips. It is always advisable to seek the advice of the family doctor or specialist in charge, before the patients decision to receive dubious treatments, with the assurance that, decide what the patient decide, they will have always his understanding and his emotional and medical support.




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How to Cite
Pérez Requejo J. L., & Aznar Lucea, J. (2021). Stem cell tourism. Medicina Y Ética, 23(3), 369–396. Retrieved from https://publicaciones.anahuac.mx/index.php/bioetica/article/view/695
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