Don’t Pay for Cord-Blood Banking

October 17, 2022

(The Atlantic) – Because cord blood is so valuable, publicly run banks have been collecting donations since the 1990s. Despite amassing fewer units overall, public banks worldwide have provided 30 times as many units of blood for treatment—and saved more lives—than private ones, because they are accessible by any patient in need. Although the AAP recommends against private banking, it does recommend donating to public banks. One appeal of private banking, though, as the companies highlight, is that the cells in a baby’s umbilical cord are a perfect match for them in later childhood or adulthood. But this is usually irrelevant: In most of the diseases that can be cured by a cord-blood transplant, doctors would, for medical reasons, not use the patient’s own cells. (Read More)