Innovative practice, or human lab rats?

The Health Ministry has ordered Professor Shimon Slavin, one of Israel's most senior physicians, to cease administering treatment to several of his patients at his private Tel Aviv clinic immediately, especially cancer patients. The ministry previously accused him, in an unprecedented statement, of carrying out illegal clinical trials on his patients.

The Health Ministry gave the order after discovering that Slavin, a former senior manager at Hadassah's Ein Karem campus, had neither requested nor received the necessary legal approval for administering such care. Patients were treated at the International Center for Cell Therapy and Cancer Immunotherapy, located in the Weizmann Center building near Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

The Health Ministry issued the injunction in February of this year. In response, Slavin petitioned the High Court of Justice, hoping the court would strike it down. He called the order "draconian, extreme and illegal" and said bone marrow transplant centers have for years been using the very treatments he pioneered and offers at his clinic. Slavin also flatly rejected the Health Ministry findings against him.

The court will hear his petition beginning in July. Meanwhile, it has allowed him to continue treating patients whose treatment has already begun.

The details of the Slavin case have sent shock waves through the health care system and raised difficult questions about the medical institutions and doctors involved. The ultimate decision rests with the Supreme Court.

Professor Ronni Gamzu, outgoing Health Ministry director general, had harsh words for Slavin's practice: "Concern has been raised that [Slavin] found a method capitalizing on his patients' desperation. Most doctors don't recommend such treatment, they even forbid its use abroad, except if it lies within the realm of clinical trials. His methods have no proven effectiveness. If the treatment is effective, then where is the list of patients and their clinical results? What is most egregious is that he did all of this from the status of a retired senior department member. He used this prestige to anesthetize and enthrall his patients, who were in a state of despair."

In his petition, Slavin's defense attorneys insisted the Health Ministry was already well aware of Slavin's methods, which they claimed were widely used.

"What the Health Ministry forbade my client from doing is done in bone marrow transplant clinics worldwide, which implement Slavin's scientific method. Each method we are petitioning is executed under full transparency face-to-face with the Health Ministry; the Health Ministry has been fully aware of all the facts regarding the nature of his methodology for many years."

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