MANILA False advertising and marketing of the controversial breakthrough treatment, stem cell therapy, according to a civil society leader on Tuesday is like peddling a miracle drug to the helpless and hopeless."

Although not yet accepted as a standard method of treatment by the Department of Health (DOH), recent news abound of various surgeries performed, mostly by fly-by-night foreign doctors, charging millions of pesos for flawed outcomes.

This should not be the case, according to a coordinator of civil society group, WomanHealth Philippines, May-I Fabros, who explained in a health forum at Dulcinea, Tomas Morato on Tueday that if the treatment had little proof of its safety, doctors or institutions are in no position to require any form of compensation.

Fabros explained that patients or consumers have rights in the advent of stem cell therapy and have every right to be educated on both the benefits and detriments of the treatment to health.

When a doctor tells a family member or relative of a sick patient that all methods to treat him or her have failed but stem cell therapy might be able to help, that person will clutch on that hope, Fabros said.

For us Filipinos, nothing is too expensive for family, she added, explaining how for all classes, they would give every cent they just to get their loved ones well again. The objective is to have them live.

She explained that this affects the poor, especially as they would even go as far as selling land, property and every bit of their being to avail of a treatment that might cause a person more harm than good.

You should not pay if its not effective, Fabros said. Until proven it should not be for sale. (PNA)

PDS/ANP

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Civil society on stem cell therapy: 'No proof, no pay'