, George Daley, president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, has voiced comment over plans to operate a private adult stem cell clinic on the Island.

Premier Ewart Brown and his wife Wanda are teaming up with California-based Stemedica to set up the Brown-Darrell Clinic in Winterhaven, Smith's, with proposals to treat one or two "no option" patients every week. It is scheduled to open early next year.

Dr. Daley, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, fears patients across the world with life-threatening illnesses are already being treated by medics who, he believes, take advantage of hype over stem cell treatment at great expense to the patient with no assurance of success.

"I'm very concerned about the rapid attempt to translate stem cells into therapies long before there's real medical justification," said Dr. Daley in a reference to global stem cell practices.

e said he was very sceptical of anyone running experimental treatment in jurisdictions where there is no regulatory oversight. It is understood there are currently no regulations regarding stem cell treatment in Bermuda.

And he warned patients thinking about taking stem cell treatment: "Be very sceptical of promises that are not substantiated. If the story is too good to be true, it probably is not true. If the claims are miraculous, you have to be very suspicious."

It comes as Arthur Tucker, the Bermudian chairman of East London and the City Research Ethics Committee, warned of the consequences if adult stem cell work goes wrong.

Dr. Tucker expressed concern that if patients suffered complications during invasive procedures, there was only King Edward VII Memorial Hospital standing by for emergencies.

He believes California-based Stemedica may have picked Bermuda for its project because it is not subject to the kind of regulatory oversight in place in the US, the UK and Canada.

He says global patients could be lulled into a false sense of security that treatment in Bermuda — a British colony with a "clean" reputation — is safer than other less regulated countries such as Korea, Mexico and Russia.

Dr. Tucker says the partnership between Stemedica and the Browns is potentially financially rewarding given that patients elsewhere have paid tens of thousands of dollars for treatment they are told could improve their quality of life.

"If you are absolutely desperate and have got Parkinson's, a life-threatening illness, how much would you pay if someone convinces you they are going to fix it?" he asked.

The amount patients will pay for treatment at the Brown-Darrell Clinic has not been disclosed.

Stemedica has declined numerous requests for an interview from over the past three weeks. We wanted to find out exactly what research and treatment will take place in Bermuda, and to address the issues raised by Dr. Daley and Dr. Tucker.

Vice president David McGuigan sent this statement last week: "The record needs to be set straight and we would want to respond to 'other issues raised by doctors in the stem cell field'; however, after the libels written about Stemedica in Mid-Ocean News and , we do not trust that our comments will be used fairly in any article your organisation publishes."

This newspaper has in fact never previously published anything questioning or attacking Stemedica or its proposals, although our sister paper The Mid-Ocean News has done so, and those articles have been covered on the royalgazette.com website.

Last week, we made a number of attempts to contact the Premier and Mrs. Brown on the subject — through Dr. Brown's company Bermuda HealthCare Services; through Mangrove Consultants which has organised public relations for Stemedica in Bermuda; through Dr. Brown's Government e-mail address; and through Mrs. Brown's private e-mail address. We previously approached the Premier's Press Secretary but were told we needed to go through the private companies. We received no response from the Premier or Mrs. Brown.

At the July press conference, Mrs. Brown, the consulting CEO of the clinic, said: "It is our every hope and intention that what we do at Brown-Darrell will help to lay the groundwork for the treatment of patients around the world who, without stem cell treatment, have no hope for a normal life.

"We believe that we will significantly improve the quality of life of those patients we treat, and that we will contribute to the research being conducted in this field that will some day make stem cell treatment available to all who need it."

n the kind of patients likely to be treated, Mrs. Brown said: "We are scheduled to open in the late fall of 2007, when we will begin screening 'no option' patients for treatment. 'No option' patients are those who have already exhausted traditional medical treatments with little or no success.

"It is our every hope and intention that what we do at Brown-Darrell will help to lay the groundwork for the treatment of patients around the world who, without stem cell treatment, have no hope for a normal life."

n July, Stemedica issued a statement saying it was designing technologies to treat conditions including stroke, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

It also said patients at its centres around the world would take part in "case study research" to see how adult stem cells can treat complex medical conditions. Three years ago, Government passed a law that established the Bermuda Health Council to oversee all aspects of healthcare.

Last month, the Bermuda Sun reported the Bermuda Health Council was in the process of preparing recommended regulations for the Minister of Health, meaning the Council does not currently issue licences.

The Ministry of Health refused to acknowledge whether this was still the position, saying only: "There is no further comment at this stage, other than what the Ministry has gone on the record as saying."

The Bermuda Sun also reported that Government said the Brown-Darrell clinic would need a licence but had refused to elaborate. Bermuda Medical Council issues licences to doctors that allow them to practise.

Regulatory bodies in other countries include: the Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in the UK; the Food and Drug Administration in the US; and the Stem Cell Oversight Committee in Canada.

When Stemedica's proposals were first announced earlier this year, Bishop of Bermuda Ewen Ratteray and Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Kurtz welcomed them as long as it steers clear of embryonic stem cells.