Bermuda has no guidelines in place for stem cell treatment — two months after the Ministry of Health's self-imposed deadline.

And strict oversight could still be several months away as technical advisers disagree with an agenda to push through legislation for the benefit of Premier Ewart Brown's proposed stem cell clinic, The Royal Gazette understands.

Dr. Brown has been planning a stem cell operation at the Brown-Darrell Clinic for more than two years, but doctors at home and abroad have repeatedly raised concerns about Bermuda's lack of regulations to oversee such a project.

The Premier is said to be keen to avoid bad international press by starting stem cell work without globally recognised oversight.

But experts are thought to be finding it difficult adapting models used in major countries to fit Bermuda's characteristics as a small Island while still allowing Brown-Darrell to do what it wants to do.

Brown-Darrell — a partnership between Dr. Brown, his wife Wanda and California-based Stemedica — has stated it wants desperately ill patients to fly to the Island for adult stem cell treatment when they feel they have no option left.

However, it has repeatedly refused to comment on the matter since physicians started speaking out in 2007, with International Society for Stem Cell Research president George Daley warning people not to be misled into thinking stem cells are a miracle cure.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Health announced policy guidelines would be in place by May 2009, but conceded they would not have the teeth of regulations.

Last week, Permanent Secretary Warren Jones said "considerable progress" had been made but guidelines were not yet completed. Asked if legislation would be in place by the time any stem cell work takes place in Bermuda, Mr. Jones said: "We are committed to ensuring the guidelines are in place. That's what we are to ensure is in place first and foremost."

Acting Health Minister Walter Roban said: "I'm getting up to speed with this so I can't really say, but we have made a commitment to be very public with what we eventually produce. The work is ongoing."

Two months ago, 30 licensed and practising Bermuda-based physicians signed a letter to the late Minister Nelson Bascome opposing plans for stem cell treatment for neurodegenerative disorders on the Island.

They say treating illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's with stem cells — which Stemedica says it can — would raise serious safety and ethical questions and damage Bermuda's international reputation and credibility.

Doctors say such methods are experimental and cannot be performed in many jurisdictions such as the United States, the UK, Canada and western Europe.

Their letter also stressed stem cell research in Bermuda should be governed by strict regulations adhering to guidelines laid out by the ISSCR, and should be subject to independent international oversight by such a group.