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Cell Churches and Stem Cell Marketing in South Korea and the United States
Author(s) -
Sipp Douglas
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
developing world bioethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.398
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1471-8847
pISSN - 1471-8731
DOI - 10.1111/dewb.12120
Subject(s) - stem cell , embryonic stem cell , politics , protestantism , political science , law , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , gene
The commercial provision of putative stem cell‐based medical interventions in the absence of conclusive evidence of safety and efficacy has formed the basis of an unregulated industry for more than a decade. Many clinics offering such supposed stem cell treatments include statements about the ‘ethical’ nature of somatic (often colloquially referred to as ‘adult’ stem cells) stem cells, in specific contrast to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which have been the subject of intensive political, legal, and religious controversy since their first derivation in 1998[Note 2. Thomson JA, Itskovitz‐Eldor J, Shapiro SS, Waknitz MA, Swiergiel ...]. Christian groups—both Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant—in many countries have explicitly promoted the medical potential and current‐day successes in the clinical application of somatic stem cells, lending indirect support to the activities of businesses marketing stem cells ahead of evidence[Note 3. Sipp D. Converging Ideological Currents in the Adult Stem ...]. In this article, I make a preliminary examination of how the structures and belief systems of certain churches in South Korea and the United States, both of which are home to significant stem cell marketing industries, has complemented other factors, including national biomedical funding initiatives, international economic rivalries, permissive legal structures, which have lent impetus to a problematic and often exploitative sector of biomedical commerce[Note 4. Sipp D. Stem cell research in Asia: a critical ...].