Abstract

Stem cell tourism is a serious worldwide problem. This is where acute patients, especially the very ill, who live in countries where stem-cell-based medical treatments are not available, travel to other countries to seek such therapies. There have been reports of baseless claims of cures, charlatans and adverse medical events including deaths. These treatments are at the experimental stage, and most are unregulated. Some of the clinics offering these therapies are even supported by their local government, regulatory agencies and medical associations. Stem cell tourism is vital to the economies of some developing countries, which may thus be resistant to prohibitions by law. This article evaluates measures, legal as well as nonlegal, to control and mitigate it. Different countries have different notions of right and wrong, and state sovereignty dictates that no state can enforce its laws on another. In the international community, a nation cannot enforce its laws on other nations. It is a challenge if a regulatory approach of a country attempts to dictate local standards to another state, that is, where it seeks to steamroller over local culture and difference. Stem cell tourism is a prudential calculation for the individual and, importantly, the state has a moral obligation to inform its citizens of the potential risks of receiving experimental and unregulated stem cell-based treatment in overseas. Also, the ISSCR guidelines could raise awareness effectively of these critical issues in the international community. While stem cell tourism is a challenging area and appears to be irresolvable, local regulators still need to set up an effective national regulatory framework for regulating untested stem cell therapies within the country.