In researching this, I wondered why none of this is available in the US if a patient signs the consent form? We have all kinds of alternative treatments and therapies that, while not techinically "FDA approved", are nonetheless available if a patients wants to try it and is willing to fork over the $$ for an unknown therapy....

And lo! Just this past April, the state of Texas' medical board actually authorized stem cell treatments, which I assume will mean a doctor will be much more willing to offer this treatment to patients....here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/us...exas.html?_r=0

Not sure how newsy this is, though, because apparently the Texas Governor Rick Perry had stem cells for back pain some years ago, in Texas, but at least this might open the doors for others.

And of course California has been very active for years in researching this, not really news there. But a state-wide initiative to fund research into something and a medical board's authorization to use that something are two very different things. Hopefully, more states will join. Once this starts being done in the US, I think we will see a lot more hard data coming out as well as standardizations.

Thanks, Bob, for the caution, those claims of 80-100% recovery are so seductive. It's hard to believe sometimes how low humans will stoop to make a buck.

In the Amgen GDNF court trials, the patients were ready to sign absolutely any consent form but the judge said lawyers could tear apart any consent form in a future trial - saying the patients were distressed, not really knowing what they were consenting to; that if people die or get worse from the treatment, the consent form does not hold up - they did not consent to get worse; they had little knowledge compared to the scientists... so it's the doctor who gets sued for millions under tort law.
As PWP, they don't believe we consent even when we consent.
What part of "yes" do they not understand?
I consented
No you didn't
Yes I did
But your consent is not adequate as consent
I said I consent to everything in the universe
That's what they all say. Tell it to the judge
The judge says my word is the word of a brain-damaged trembling cognitively impaired spastic. My consent is not consenty enough because you can see I don't know what i am doing.
So why do we sign consent forms?
Look you are the patient. It is none of your business.