Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said he will move to introduce legislation regulating anti-aging and longevity clinics, following the death of singer Giorgos Mazonakis at the Stem Cell clinic in the Athens district of Kolonaki.
Speaking to ERT, Greece's state broadcaster, Georgiadis said the issue of these centres and their advertising was a matter of public health, and that a legislative drafting committee made up of specialised doctors and lawyers would be set up immediately to build a well-structured framework for how the clinics operate.
Rules "overtaken" worldwide
Georgiadis said anti-aging and longevity was a fast-growing area of science, but that its regulatory framework was grey. He said that in every country in the world, longevity techniques had overtaken the regulatory frameworks put in place by states, and that grey zones existed everywhere.
Plasmapheresis banned outside hospitals
The minister made clear that plasmapheresis, the procedure Mazonakis underwent before his death, is banned from being carried out outside a hospital setting. Plasmapheresis is a medical procedure that filters plasma from the blood and is typically used to treat certain autoimmune and blood disorders under clinical supervision.
Emergency response and an illegal procedure
Georgiadis said the National Centre for Emergency Care, known in Greece by its acronym EKAB, reached the clinic in Kolonaki within four minutes and provided all the first aid that medical science allowed.
At the same time, he said, the plasmapheresis procedure carried out at the clinic had been completely illegal.
The clinic held a legal licence to operate as a general medical practice, which covers a number of procedures, he said, but plasmapheresis was not among them.
Background to the case
Mazonakis is a well-known Greek singer, and news of his death has drawn wide attention in Greece, including tributes at concerts. Kolonaki, where the Stem Cell clinic is located, is an affluent district in central Athens. Georgiadis is a senior minister in Greece's governing New Democracy party.
