ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the dislodging of the Direct-to-Consumer Marketing of Stem Cell-Based Interventions (DTC-SCBI) from the Medical Tourism. The term medical tourism' is generally used to describe a niche category of specialist travel in which medical services are marketed DTC and often in packages that can also include flights, hotels, sightseeing and other activities that are typically associated with the broader scope of tourism'. Stem cells are the focus of an emergent field of clinical research and application that is frequently described as having enormous therapeutic potential. Connell suggests that the majority of medical travel is regional rather than the transcontinental journeys. While DTC-SCBI intuitively belongs within the broader category of medical tourism, there are particular aspects of this phenomenon that makes its inclusion within this category problematic. The constellation of activities undertaken by patients and consumers grouped within the conceptual framework of medical tourism' share two common features: international travel and therapy-seeking.
