ICMS Issues Statement in Support of Patient's Rights

[barbara]

The ICMS guidelines address the issue of safety and transparency. Clinics that apply for accreditation with ICMS have to follow certain guidelines written by doctors and researchers that address safety issues. They maintain that patients need to be able to make decisions with their physicians about their own medical care and I concur. The ICMS however, does not advocate that no guidelines or safety standards be followed. Quite the contrary as their guidelines are designed to uphold strong safety and efficacy standards. If you are not a member of ICMS, I urge you to join and give them your support. Ask your friends and family to join too.

Aug 11, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, August 11, 2011

International Cell Medicine Society Issues Statement in Support of Patient’s Rights

The International Cellular Medicine Society, a professional medical association dedicated to the advancement of autologous, adult stem cells through physician education and patient safety, supports the decision of Texas Governor Rick Perry to receive an adult stem cell treatment. While the ICMS cannot comment on the safety or the efficacy of the specific therapy, we believe that an informed patient has a right to access medical treatments. It is our position that the use of autologous, adult stem cells by a trained, licensed physician is the definition of the practice of medicine. The ICMS asserts that the right of Governor Perry and all informed patients to access medical treatment must be protected.

The question of who determines access to medical therapies is a significant issue for all patients. Critics of patient rights have called for expanded governmental regulation. The goal of these patient right’s opponents is to deny access to these promising therapies. If successful, the result would be a world where doctors are told how to treat patients, and where individuals are forced to surrender their right to choose healthcare.

The appropriate response to the emergence of stem cell medicine is not, as the opponents of patients' rights claim, to deny a patient the access to healthcare. The ICMS believes that healthcare decisions are best addressed by a patient in consultation with her or his physician. It is the duty of physicians to educate the patient to make an informed healthcare decision. Furthermore, it is the obligation of physicians and professional medical societies to insure transparency for patient treatment methods while protecting patients' right to privacy.

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About the INTERNATIONAL CELLULAR MEDICINE SOCIETY

The ICMS is a physician guided international 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to patient safety and the protection of the practice of medicine and physician education through the production of global guidelines for the practice of cell based medicine and the collection and evaluation of outcome data through a comprehensive stem cell patient treatment registry. Additional information is available at the Society’s website, www.cellmedicinesociety.org