BIOETHICAL CONCEPTS RELATED TO HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION IN THE RELIGIOUS AND SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT
BIOETHICAL CONCEPTS RELATED TO HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION IN THE RELIGIOUS AND SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT

Summary/Abstract: Translational medicine is a modern discipline which aims to create a bridge between experimental research, clinical research and implementation of all these scientific data into clinical practice. Translational medicine also entails legal and socio-cultural aspects that can decide the outcome of this process. In hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), research emphasizes the concept of stem cell, continuously updated, necessary for the clinical improvement of allo- and autografting of hematopoietic stem cells. Between the experimental data and the clinical practice itself, there can be gaps, sometimes related to the capacity of obtaining viable and useful results through research, or the approach to a medicine which is not sufficiently centered on the patient. This last obstacle has been studied by the authors. The main objective of the paper was to establish whether the patient’s religious beliefs can influence the choice for stem cell therapy. The paper presented four cases of patients from the Hematology Clinic, Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Arad. The results showed that the patients had a crucial role in selecting the HSCT therapy. Two patients underwent HSCT; one of them refused the allo-grafting for religious considerations. One of the most frequent reasons invoked by the patients is the refusal of blood and blood product transfusions based on social, cultural and religious grounds.

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