Public Umbilical Cord Blood Banking?
So a lot of us have either given or received blood from blood bank. The Red Cross and similar organizations literally gather thousands of pints of blood to give to those who have special needs. Many college students have even stayed alive by donating plasma. But, has anyone ever thought about a Public Umbilical Cord Bank?
Many new parents have heard about Umbilical Cord Blood Banking and Registries. But, it’s pretty expensive to do, so a lot of that blood just gets thrown away. The average cost right now is about $1500 with an annual fee of about $100. For those parents who don’t have as much money as they might want, they would probably rather put that in a college fund or the like. But, the government recently donated money for 6 banks to store public cord blood. The donor’s will wave their rights to using the blood and it will be used for a bank. This way, just like donating your blood, those who meet the given criteria can use your stem cells for their benefit. It is a really good idea. Preserving your cord blood costs a lot and you might never even use it. But this way when you need it, you should be able to get it, and every new child can donate without any real loss to themselves. A pretty cool idea if you ask me. This is a definite Pro in the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research.
