‘Stem Cell Tourism’ Takes Advantage of Patients, Says Law Professor

March 27, 2014

(University of Wisconsin-Madison News) – Desperate patients are easy prey for unscrupulous clinics offering untested and risky stem cell treatments, says UW-Madison law and bioethics Professor Alta Charo, who is studying “stem cell tourism.” Stem cells are cells that can form many types of cells in the body, and that makes them inherently promising — and dangerous. “Stem cell tourism” refers to people traveling, both within the U.S. and abroad, in pursuit of advertised stem cell therapies to purportedly treat a variety of medical conditions.