Turkish authorities should remove limitations on stem-cell research, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, or TÜBA, has recommended, saying prohibitions on the field lead desperate patients to resort to scientifically unproven treatments.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, academics from TÜBA’s Stem Cell Working Group, made up of 13 professors, said a “Center for Excellence” should be opened in Turkey to facilitate broad research on stem cells and provide solutions for patients in need.
If the limits on laboratory research are removed and such studies are supported, original work in the field could take place in Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.
There is a stem-cell sector in Turkey, but the prices charged for treatment are exorbitant, TÜBA said, adding that such treatments had neither been legalized nor proven.
Some patients are offered stem-cell treatments that do not have a scientific basis because they are suffering from diseases that do not respond to regular medical treatment, the academics said, adding that these people’s hopes are often abused.
The group said an additional concern is “stem-cell-treatment tourism,” where patients are offered the option of traveling abroad to receive unproven treatments. Typically, the families of these patients must pay high costs for the trips and treatments, the academics said.
Noting that they were watching the sector with concern, members of the group said stem-cell research was the most important and controversial area of study in contemporary science and technology.
Stem-cell research remains experimental because the biological characteristics of human embryonic stem cells are not entirely known and there is a potential risk of causing cancer, according to the academics.
“Stem cells are still not an option for treatment because the experimental laboratory research on these cells is still ongoing,” TÜBA’s statement said. “Stem cells and their uses, which have not received the status of being a method of [standardized] treatment, should not be used in principle as a way of profit-making and trade.”
Patients and families hold protest
TÜBA’s comments came after a protest earlier in the month in which children with muscular diseases and their families rallied in Istanbul’s Taksim neighborhood to demand the lifting of the ban on laboratory stem-cell research in Turkey.
“Although Article 90/4 of the Turkish Penal Code gives us permission to do this research, the ministry took this right away with a circular in 2006,” said Dr. Ahmet Göze on behalf of the families, criticizing the fact that stem-cell research in Turkey was illegal.
“Please remove the obstacles to stem-cell research because we want stem-cell research to start in our country as well,” Göze said.
Roughly 150 people are members of a group titled, “The last hope is support for stem-cell transplants,” on the social-networking site Facebook, the Doğan news agency reported.
