Cord Blood Banks
Differences Between Cord Blood Banks
Cord blood banks can either be public or private. A public cord blood blank is usually a non-profit operation while a private cord blood blank is a business that operates for profit. Both private and public cord blood blanks have been around since the mid-90s, ever since the first umbilical cord blood transplant was performed, proving to be successful in treating blood diseases and diseases of the immune system. It was in 1988 when a child with Fanconi's anemia was successfully treated by the first cord blood transplant. By the year 2004, six hundred of these transplants were performed in the United States . Today, cord blood banks are present in most states.
Public cord blood bank
Public cord blood banks accept cord blood donations and store them for anyone who may be in need of them. They match the stem cells of a donor to the one needing the blood cord for treatment. Some hospitals even require the donation of the umbilical cord for storage and use of public cord blood banks. Public banks, however, follow very strict regulations in accepting donations and in adding cord blood to their registry. A list of public cord blood banks is available at the office of the National Marrow Donor Program and through their website www.marrow.org . In public cord blood banks, any identifying information is lost once the cord blood has already been donated by the family. The family also cannot retrieve it in the future. The public cord blood bank will appropriate the donated cord blood anonymously according to the stem cell match.
Private cord blood bank
A private cord blood bank will store cord blood for the use of the mother's newborn child in the future. Most of these private cord blood banks charge around $2,000 to preserve the cord blood of a newborn baby for possible use later on. A cryogenic storage process is used to store cord blood units. This practice is however opposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the European Group on Ethics. These organizations believe that when a child, whose cord blood has been stored, contracts an immune system or blood disease, then the stem cells may already be genetically prone to the disease and therefore, will be of no use to the recipient. Using the stem cells can even aggravate the condition of the recipient. There is also no long-term viability for a cryogenically frozen cord blood because it has not yet been tested and established. Private cord blood banks are being accused of profiteering and taking advantage of the mothers' concern for their newborn's future. As it is, it is mostly the wealthy families who can afford cord blood banking.