Medical Article
December 21, 1999 The Hope, and Hype, of Cord Blood By DENISE GRADY Should parents pay a blood bank to store the blood from their newborn baby's umbilical cord and placenta, in case that child or another family member ever needs it to treat cancer or leukemia? Expectant parents are being urged to do so by companies that have sprung up during the past few years to sell cord-blood banking as a form of "biological insurance" against such dreaded diseases. The pitch is based on reports in medical journals, such as a major study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing that cord blood can sometimes be used in place of a bone marrow transplant. Like bone marrow, cord ...
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wasting money on a service they will probably never need. Moreover, private companies are growing in tandem with public banks, and some scientists worry that private banking will limit public access to cord blood. They are concerned because the cord blood in private banks remains the property of the donor family and is not available to patients seeking a compatible donor. But the companies say that however remote the possibility that the blood will be needed, people who choose to bank their own cord blood have a right to do so. In most cases their cord blood would be thrown away in the delivery room if they did not pay to bank it. There are only a few cord-blood banks in the United States, and most hospitals do not have specially trained staff members to collect the blood. Like bone marrow, cord blood must be matched to the recipient by tests for six inherited traits that determine an individual's tissue type. Cord blood does not have to be as precisely matched as bone marrow, but ...
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rise. The company also has a Web site and an 800 number with a recorded greeting that instructs callers to have their credit cards ready. The idea of saving one's own cord blood seems to be catching on. Cord Blood Registry, which describes itself as the largest private cord-blood banking firm in the United States, has stored 10,000 samples during the past three years: 1,500 in 1995, 3,000 in 1996 and 6,000 in 1997. The company charges an initial fee of $1,200 to collect a sample and freeze it, and then $95 a year to keep it stored in liquid nitrogen at the blood bank at the University of Arizona. Customers include people with perfectly healthy children, who just want extra peace of mind, ...
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Medical Article. (2008, February 28). Retrieved November 28, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Medical-Article/79767
"Medical Article." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 28 Feb. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Medical-Article/79767>
"Medical Article." Essayworld.com. February 28, 2008. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Medical-Article/79767.
"Medical Article." Essayworld.com. February 28, 2008. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Medical-Article/79767.
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