MANILA, Philippines --- The Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM) yesterday warned against anti-aging procedures and medical treatments that use stem cell harvested from human fetuses and even from egg cells of women.

Dr. Leo Olarte, PSSCM spokesperson, released a statement over the weekend to address some "alarming number of cases" in which stem cells used for anti-aging and medical treatments were actually gathered from babies and egg cells.

Olarte said the local medical community was alarmed when he reported what he learned from a recent scientific forum in the United States that centered on the issue of exploitation of humans for "commercial and economic purposes."

The PSSCM official, who is also the vice president of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), said that in countries like Ukraine, Switzerland, Russia and even Malaysia, harvesting stem cells from human fetuses has become quite common that even normal and healthy babies are being used for harvesting.

This practice is known as allogenic sourced-out stem cells or cells that come from a matched related or unrelated donor.

Olarte called on the Department of Health (DOH) to check whether or not this practice is already prevalent in the country especially hearing reports that a Malaysian pharmaceutical group has already begun offering human-derived allogenic stem cells to several local doctors, including dermatologists and cosmetologists.

The stem cells were said to be sourced from Ukraine and Russia.

"With this in mind and realizing that we can consider this as exploitation of other human beings for personal benefit, we ask ourselves if this is an ethical and moral medical procedure," Olarte said.

"I am also calling on the Catholic Church to unite with us. We must put an end to this once and for all before it overwhelms us. We should prevent the entry of human-derived allogenic stem cells from aborted fetuses which are being exported to the Philippines today," he added.

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Authorities Warn Against Anti-Aging Procedures Using Human Stem Cells