The Food and Drug Administration has gone to court to prevent
the Colorado-based firm Regenerative Sciences from using stem
cells developed in one part of your body (bone marrow) to repair
damage in other parts of your body, such as joints. The FDA
objects to the fact that these cells are chemicals, the use of
which the agency has the power to regulate even though the cells
are taken from your body to later be injected back into your
body. The FDA is accustomed to the process by which it requires
that many years and millions of dollars be spent to approve
drugs developed in a laboratory before anyone is allowed to use
them. Regardless of clinical results that show use of stem cells
to be highly effective, the FDA finds it intolerable to let you
use the cells in your own body without prior approval by a vast
and expensive bureaucracy. It is a shame that no one told all of
those who would benefit from stem-cell research that the
benefits of such research would not actually be available to
patients. Treatment of