Stem Cell Tourism

Last month, Hungarian police arrested four people in a raid on a suspected guerilla stem cell clinic. Reuters reported that the clinic mined stem cells from embryos and fetuses and charged patients as much as $25,000 for treatments.

Stem cell therapy is promising, but experts are warning of the dangers of seeking illegal, untested, and possibly dangerous treatments in clinics springing up across the globe. The practice is so prevalent that the International Society for Stem Cell Research has issued guidelines to caution desperate patients.

For more, we were joined by Doctor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the division of stem cell biology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London.

Science-Based Medicine: Quack Clinics

Learn more about the International Society for Stem Cell Research

(Photo by Katjaja via Flickr/Creative Commons)