Aborted babies used in Russian anti-ageing fad

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Aborted babies used in Russian anti-ageing fad

CLARE CHAPMAN

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=674172005

WEALTHY Russians are switching from investing their roubles in luxury yachts and

designer jewellery to stem cell therapies in an attempt to maintain the vitality

of youth into their old age.

The treatments, in which stem cells extracted from aborted or miscarried

foetuses are injected into the body, is the latest anti-ageing weapon, following

Botox injections and facelifts, to keep Moscow's youth-obsessed high society

looking young.

And those who have admitted visiting the clinics now springing up across the

Russian capital claim it works and has wiped years off their age.

Pharmaceutical magnate and former presidential candidate Vladimir Bryntsalov,

58, one of Russia's 27 billionaires, is already a firm believer in the

experimental treatment that can cost as much as £2,000 per session.

" I had lots of wrinkles on my face, but now the skin is as smooth as a baby's. I

also had terrible scars on my body that were there since childhood, but they too

have disappeared. "

The foetal stem cell therapy is not only being used to smooth out wrinkles, but

is also being injected into other parts of the body to get rid of cellulite and

excess flab.

However, the ethical, health and legal issues surrounding the therapy are being

ignored - experts are exploiting a legal loophole in Russian law which permits

the extraction and storage of embryo stem cells, but does not specify what can

then be done with them.

Professor Vladimir Smirnov, director of Moscow's Institute of Experimental

Cardiology and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recently voiced

concern: " We are talking about a huge, corrupt and dangerous trade in dubious

therapies, " he said. " The authorities have never licensed any medical specialist

to administer injections of stem cells. These methods are totally experimental

and illegal. "

Stem cells are the building blocks of the human body, but are far more plentiful

in embryos than in adults. Once extracted, they can be stimulated in a

laboratory to develop into any type of body cell or organ including bone, muscle

and body tissue.

Research into the cells in western Europe is strictly regulated as scientists

try to develop the stem cell therapies for possible use on a range of illnesses

including heart disease, Parkinson's and diabetes.

Equipment to extract stem cells from a human embryo is, however, extremely

expensive and other critics are incredulous that beauty parlours can even afford

it. They believe patients may have been injected with an embryo's tissue

extracts, skin cells or even animal stem cells instead. At least one Russian

patient has died after having such treatment.

Investigations are currently being carried out into an illegal baby trade that

sees impoverished women from Russia and the surrounding countries selling their

aborted foetuses to unscrupulous specialists for as little as £100.

The foetuses are then cryogenically frozen and sold to beauty clinics for as

much as £5,000. Older foetuses fetch more, as staff at the clinics believe their

stem cells have a greater curative power.

Ukrainian investigator Sergei Shorobogatko said the practice was increasing in

the former Soviet republic and added that women were also being persuaded to

have late abortions, even though the legal limit is 12 weeks.

" Doctors tell the women or girls that there is a problem with their pregnancy

and that the baby has to be aborted, or else they are offered more money, " said

Shorobogatko.

Critics add that unless action is taken to curb stem cell beauty therapy, the

problem will only get worse. But these pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears.

Russia's oligarchs are continuing to develop the stem cell treatment that will

give them eternal youth.

Aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, who with an estimated fortune of more than

£3bn is third on the Forbes rich list of wealthy Russians, has already invested

more than £65,000 in the Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology at Moscow

State University.

Professor Vladimir Skulachev, the institute director and a full member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences, said: " Ageing is a biological programme where

oxygen is the main killer of cells. We believe that any programme can be turned

off. "