With more parents choosing stem cell banking as a safeguard for their child’s future health, a recent case has highlighted a crucial question: what happens when something goes wrong — and there is no regulatory framework to fall back on?

A woman signed up with a private service to preserve her newborn’s umbilical cord stem cells, paying the required fees for collection and long-term storage. The sample was taken immediately after birth. But when she checked her records online, she saw the child’s gender incorrectly marked as “male.” The company corrected it only after she raised repeated concerns.

Her worry was simple but serious — if gender could be wrong, could the sample, too, belong to someone else? With stem cells potentially being used for future life-saving treatment, even a clerical error felt like a major breach of trust. She filed a consumer complaint alleging negligence and mental agony.

The company defended itself by stating that each sample is stored under a unique CRM number, not gender, and that the father-in-law had mistakenly ticked the wrong box. More importantly, it argued that stem cells are human tissue, not a commercial “product” — and therefore fall outside consumer law.

The Punjab State Consumer Commission agreed. Citing Section 2(33) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, it held that human tissues, blood and organs are not considered products, and services related to their storage or preservation do not fall under consumer jurisdiction. The complaint was dismissed.

But the case leaves a lingering concern. With stem cell therapies steadily rising and clinics actively advertising their potential use against future diseases, India still has no binding framework governing storage, traceability, authorisation, or accountability. Hospitals and clinics offering stem-cell-related services are therefore entering a sensitive zone — one that may soon become highly regulated.

IML Insight
This case is not about negligence — it is about a regulatory vacuum. As stem cell banking becomes more common, healthcare institutions must begin developing internal protocols for consent, documentation, chain of custody, ethical oversight, and disclosure of limitations. Courts may not intervene today — but law and liability will eventually catch up.

Source : Order pronounced by Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on 7th August, 2025.