The Stem Cell Hard Sell
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2017
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pioneering stem cell research is giving hope to patients with incurable conditions from multiple sclerosis to Alzheimer’s that treatment might one day be possible. It is early days but already some clinics are charging sick patients to take part in experimental therapies, including in the United States. Phil Kemp investigates one Florida-based stem cell study and asks if enough is being done to protect vulnerable people in search of a cure.
Produced by Anna Meisel
(Photo: Assistant Professor of Genetics and Developmental Biology Stormy Chamberlain holds a tray of stem cells at the University of Connecticut`s (UConn) Stem Cell Institute at the UConn Health Center, Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading assignment from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:04.0 | We decided to have a look at the world of stem cell clinics |
| 0:07.0 | after a stroke patient got in touch with a colleague here in London |
| 0:10.0 | who'd been reporting on advances in medicine in the area. |
| 0:13.0 | Stem cells hold a lot of promise, but it's still very early days in research terms. |
| 0:19.0 | But that hasn't stopped clinics in some parts of the world charging patients to take part in clinical trials. |
| 0:25.3 | So we decided to look at one study underway in Florida in the United States. |
| 0:29.5 | Please drive to High route. You know what I may just as well take a peek at it and I'll try to direct her from back here. |
| 0:41.0 | So at that, yeah, that's the definition of a backseat driver. Yes, this is the best |
| 0:44.9 | kind. George Gibson is no ordinary backseat driver. Because his vision is so poor, he |
| 0:51.9 | has to hold the satinav right up to his good eye and look at |
| 0:54.9 | it through a magnifying glass to see the addresses he's pre-programmed into the machine. |
| 0:59.6 | Okay now that you practice you're driving we can go. Okay. |
| 1:03.0 | His wife, Young, waits patiently as he tries to navigate her back to the place where he was treated a year |
| 1:09.4 | earlier for his eye condition. |
| 1:11.0 | Right here? |
| 1:12.0 | When we drive it's like the blind leave the blind. |
| 1:15.0 | I'll be quiet. |
| 1:19.0 | George is 76 and from Philadelphia. He was left with severely reduced vision after a serious heart |
| 1:26.0 | attack five years ago while on a skiing holiday, his biggest passion. His vision wasn't |
| 1:31.7 | getting worse, but it wasn't getting any better. So keen not to hang up |
| 1:35.9 | his skis, he started looking for other solutions online. It led him to take part in a study |
... |
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