After years of concerns over children with autism being subjected to expensive and unproven stem cell procedures, the Centre has finally drawn a sharper regulatory line. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) issued an advisory last week directing that stem-cell therapy be used as standard care only for conditions and indications specifically approved by the ministry. For autism spectrum disorder (ASD), therapeutic use has been restricted to approved clinical trials with the necessary regulatory clearances.

The September 17 advisory follows the Supreme Court’s January 30 judgment in the PIL filed by Mumbai-based Yas Charitable Trust and others, which held that stem-cell therapy for autism cannot be offered as a routine clinical treatment and can only be undertaken within an approved and monitored research or clinical-trial setting.