The International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) this week launched a new website designed to equip patients, their families and doctors with the tools and information they need to make decisions about stem cell treatments.

Medical travel for unproven stem-cell-based therapies is commonly referred to as stem cellⁱ tourism. Clinics worldwide over-promise the benefits of their so-called treatments and grossly downplay or ignore the risks. Such unproven therapy is without scientific rationale. Neither the efficacy of the treatments, nor the lack of serious side effects has been shown in animal models. This 'magic cure by stem cells' approach must be condemned under all circumstances.

Elena CattaneoItalian researcher Elena Cattaneo has written previously on this site about the lack of transparent, contestable funding for science in Italy.  A new book by Armando Massarenti, Staminalia: Le Cellule Etiche e i Nemici Della Ricerca (Staminalia: Ethical Cells and the Enemies Of Research), picks up on this issue - describing the political and ethical disputes surrounding stem cellⁱ research in Italy, and the way science has sometimes been misrepresented.  Cattaneo, reviewing this book in Nature, writes:

If you're interested in exploring some of the ethical issues surrounding stem cellⁱ research, our 19-minute film, Conversations: ethics, science, stem cells, is a good place to start.  The film, featuring the different points of view of doctors, scientists, ethicists, theologians and a patient, aims to encourage open debate about the ethical issues around stem cell research. It is structured in chapters, each addressing a key ethical question.