Indian surgeon vows to continue stem cell research on brain dead patients

An Indian surgeon has vowed to continue with a clinical trial he claims will “reverse” brain death, despite strong criticism by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The ICMR has warned Himanshu Bansal, a spine surgeon based in the northern Indian town of Rudrapur, that his proposal to look for evidence of reversal of brain death would violate guidelines for human research.

India’s National Apex Committee for Stem Cell Research and Therapy, a panel under the ICMR, first wrote to Bansal in April this year after he uploaded an outline of his proposed study to the Clinical Trials Registry: India, a database maintained by the ICMR.1

The study plans to use stem cells from brain dead patients, biopeptides from a US company named BioQuark, and transcranial laser …