Considering Cord Blood Banking?

An interesting comment from Summer Johnson on cord blood banking at blog.bioethics.net

To Bank or Not to Bank? For Cord Blood, The Answer is No.

Much ado has been made over private cord blood banking when a baby is born for its potential someday to maybe save a child's life. New research suggests, however, that the likelihood of that eventuality coming to pass is incredibly small.

According to WaPo the study published last month in the journal Pediatrics, 93 pediatric transplant specialists were surveyed to find out how many had used banked cord blood. The answer? Very very few. Just 50 had used banked blood and just 9 had done autologous transplants (giving blood back to the donor). Other cases involved giving the blood to siblings or other relatives.

read more