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Why in News:
- The Supreme Court of India recently ruled that using stem cell therapy to treat Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) constitutes “professional misconduct” and “medical malpractice,” halting its commercial use for this condition.
About the Ruling and Stem Cell Science
- The Verdict: The Court declared that stem cell therapy for autism is currently “unproven” and should strictly be restricted to clinical trials for research purposes only. It cannot be sold as a routine medical treatment.
- Legal Status: The judgment clarified that Autologous Stem Cells (cells taken from a patient’s own body) still fall under the definition of a “New Drug” under the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019.
- Implication: Doctors cannot simply harvest and reinject these cells without regulatory approval, debunking the claim that “your own cells can’t be a drug.”
- Permitted Uses: Currently, stem cell therapy is legally approved in India only for specific blood disorders (like leukemia and thalassemia) using Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). All other uses are considered experimental.
- What are Stem Cells?: These are the body’s raw materials—cells from which all other specialized cells (like muscle, brain, or blood cells) are generated. They have two key properties:
- Self-renewal: Ability to divide and make more stem cells.
- Differentiation: Ability to change into specific cell types.
- Types of Stem Cells:
- Totipotent: Can form a complete new organism (e.g., Zygote).
- Pluripotent: Can form almost any cell type but not a whole organism (e.g., Embryonic Stem Cells, iPSCs).
- Multipotent: Can form a limited range of cells (e.g., Adult Stem Cells in bone marrow).
