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Should We Call It Fraud?
Author(s) -
CAULFIELD TIMOTHY
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.1002/hast.15
Subject(s) - declaration , statement (logic) , event (particle physics) , tourism , front (military) , phenomenon , internet privacy , public relations , business , psychology , law , political science , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
I recently had the opportunity to chair an interdisciplinary workshop on stem cell tourism—the practice, that is, of marketing unproven stem cell therapies for a wide range of diseases and disabilities, drawing patients from around the world. The goal of the event was to produce a statement to educate Canadian family physicians about this troubling and exploitative phenomenon. We wanted to keep the statement basic and straightforward. “Let's simply call stem cell tourism what it is. It is fraud,” someone suggested. I wrote the word “fraud” on the flipchart at the front of the room, and everyone seemed comfortable with this frank declaration. But when I went to write up the first draft of our statement, I hesitated .