A hot button ethical issue within the scientific community in recent years has been the discussion of stem cell tourism. To discuss this issue, we must understand what is meant by the term, give an opinion of ethical behaviour being displayed by the stem cell tourism industry using some high-profile cases as references, weigh up the prevailing scientific views on the treatments, consider the counter arguments and finally conclude. To begin we will define what exactly is meant by the term stem cell tourism. Stem cell tourism can be defined as a pejorative term used to describe clinics that offer under or untested stem cell interventions to patients with debilitating diseases (1). The phenomenon is becoming ever more popular and clinics and therapies …show more content…
While these articles prove to some extent, that these providers and practitioners are knowingly defrauding patients and breaching codes of ethics, it is possible some practitioners may be under the influence of self-deception. Self-deception is when individuals convince themselves of a fact or truth and they seem to be unknowledgeable about the deception itself. Their process to rationalize and consider important factual evidence and opposing arguments is being denied (1) This is a very dangerous concept because especially in an area of unproven stem cell therapies, because, scientists will believe in their pet theories and hypotheses so deeply, that they will ignore contradicting results that challenge them (1). I understand and believe that in these cases, the practitioners and providers of stem cell treatments, are genuinely invested in the treatment and cure of these de-habilitating diseases. However, their thirst for healing has blinded them to the potential detrimental effects of these unproven and unregulated treatments. Furthermore, the potential for patients to provide the means for these treatments, enables the practitioners and providers to perpetrate the process and continue the cycle of