I am wondering how many of you bank your newborn’s cord blood and is it common in your home country? I think US is the lead country in stem cell research and recently, US President Mr Obama has reversed limits on stem-cell research.
Personally, I think this is a “biological” insurance that can be bought and done only at a moment of time, which is during the child delivery, the cord blood is extracted for storage.
If decision was not made then and there, it could not be done. Therefore I have banked my first child’s cord blood and will be doing the same for my coming second child.
Although lot of hype has been created about stemcell banking, I believe it is still in research stages. Once its efficacy is proven, it must be made affordable.
Your baby’s umbilical cord blood is a valuable source of noncontroversial stem cells. Cord blood has already saved thousands of lives and medical researchers are now exploring potential new uses for conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
“Stem cell research may eventually lead to therapies that could be used to treat diseases that afflict approximately 128 million Americans.â€
-Excerpt from a White House Press Release date 8/9/01.
Has any one tried the stem cell on disability .Yesterday I entered in a site and showed a boy with downsyndrome that was cured.I have asked how much will it cost and resieved an email that it is bieng treated in the Carabean and cost over 30,000usd
.It is not insured .Can they be checked to see if it is a froud or not?Iike to ask for what it is bieng banked and why so much money to deposit it in a bank?
I’d like to do it but I think it costs about $6000 per child in Australia, and I dont think there is a government rebate on that. I’ve heard it’s good if your child gets leukaemia later on, to inject the cord blood in, and the leukaemia goes. I’ve never heard of it curing Downs Syndrome…be great if that was true. I’d like to know what that site was, and I’d be suspicious of such an exciting advance happening in a country which you would think wouldnt likely have the facilities to come up with such an amazing cure.
Just to let you guys know…many hospitals will let you donate your cord blood to a public bank for free. You, of course do not get to use it in the future, but it will be used for research into curing many diseases. The more people who donate their cord blood, the less fetuses will be aborted for stem cell research. If you cannot afford private banking, I highly suggest you ask your doctor/hospital if you can donate it. They’re just going to throw it away anyways.
That’s standard in Australia nowadays… I donated azarias, but I asked to donate the other kids years ago and they said NO, they didnt have anywhere to store it. What a waste. And just yesterday i read an article about a 9 y o girl with a life threatening illness who had a relative who was a midwife doing research who recommended her to use breast milk to treat the disease. She had 500mls a day (that’s a liquid pound…is that a pint?) in a fruit smoothie, and she improved miraculously. They reckon breastmilk cures a mountain of ills, even leukaemia, but hardly anyone banks breastmilk here… I know this, I cant produce breastmilk, and other mothers in hospital with me were spurting it out all over the place, but I wasnt allowed to give my babies their overflow, and there was no bank of it.
I dont agree with abortion (alright I struggle with cases of rape of kids, incest and severe disablities) and aborting for stem cell research is awful, but to just throw foetuses away seems even worse… people will abort, unfortunately… if I was an aborted foetus I’d prefer to have been used for stem cell research than just thrown in the bin. I’d feel like my short life wasnt totally in vain. I heard though they are using stem cells out of skin now (of non-foetuses, like us).
This is going off topic a bit, but there are many other ways to obtain stem cells, such as cord blood. If everyone was required to donate it instead of letting it be thrown away, then there would be no need to kill fetuses for stem cells. Unfortunately, some presidents of some countries do not care about the easier, humane ways of obtaining it, and would rather do the latter. That’s all I’m going to say about that; we do not need to venture into an off-topic debate.
At the hospital I birthed at it was not an option as I asked about it. They do it in other states but not in ours yet. I think in order to do it I would have to pay a lot of money which I did not have.
