Other medical procedures also restricted Tuesday, 17 March 2009 China's Ministry of Health has issued a temporary ban on clinical use of therapeutic cloning, effective from May 1, on its official Web site on Tuesday. The MoH also prohibited other techniques, like xenotransplantation of stem cells and some gene therapy trials in clinical studies. Article 58th in the guidelines stated: “…xenogeneic stem cell therapy technology, xenotransplantation gene therapy technology, human somatic cell cloning technology in medical technology may not be used in clinical suspense.” This temporary ban is issued because of major concerns on ethical issues, safety, and effectiveness, until further verification of the technologies are achieved. The restrictions are applied to a broader set of clinical techniques. They also include treatment by cloning technologies, autologous stem cell and immune cell therapy, gene therapy techniques, xenotransplantation technology, surgical treatment of central nervous system, stereotactic surgical treatment of mental illness technologies, allogeneic stem cell transplantation technology, and vaccines as therapeutic techniques. It is uncertain how these restrictions will affect new medical procedures in the long run. However, it shows a sensitivity to the complexity of these issues in the medical community in China. These new restrictions should also be seen in the light of the recently initiated medical reform program in China. "The biggest beneficiaries of medical reform are the masses of the people, the goal is to benefit everyone." China’s health minister Chen Zhu said in a recent interview with Xinhua. ......... ZenMaster
For more on stem cells and cloning, go to CellNEWS at http://cellnews-blog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.geocities.com/giantfideli/index.html
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