<3Kathryn
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Saving the cord blood
By kathryn - Posted on February 19th, 2007
Tagged: Health
So the whole idea of saving your newborn's cord blood is pretty basic. The cord blood is full of stem cells, that produce blood cells as well as make up bone marrow. So basically, the parents are encouraged to save the blood, you know, just in case there's any illness (that the stem cells may be able to cure) in the family. It would cost the family about $2,000 to save it and about $100 or more per year for storage. It sounds to me like a good idea, it's always better to be safe than sorry, right? Well, that may not be so. Because although it would be a good resource and even better if the family were to ever need it. The thing is, the family may never even need it, and it could go to waste. Not to mention, there is no scientific eveidence that the cord blood is even usable after being stored for decades! There is, however, an alternative. The family can choose to donate the cord blood, thus giving it to people that really (definitly) need it, now. Here's where the government steps in, setting up guidelines as they try to set up a national cord-blood banking system. The goal is to save about 12,000 lives a year with the donated portion. The question is, who would donate the cord blood when it could be of benefit to themselves? Let's face it, no one wants to be a cancer victim and no one wants to lose a loved one to disease! In no way is trying to protect your family selfish, right? It's just putting your family first. Maybe people would be less reluctant to donate the cord blood now if there were a better system in place. First of all, how about the people that chose to discard the cord blood are encouraged to donate it? Because I have found that most of new parents in the U.S. have chosen to simply throw the cord blood away. Maybe if there was some benefit, such as when you donate the cord blood, you could be put on a priority list to recieve a donation if you were to ever need it. I think that with the more lives saved, people would see what good they were doing and be less hesitant to make a donation, just maybe. Or maybe if there were more awareness about the benefits to donating the cord blood, people would actually want to do it. It's a very controversial subject, but maybe I'm wrong... Is donating the cord blood a bad idea? Is it better just to save it for your family, just in case???
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I don't think it's a bad idea. I think it's a great one.
Encouraging parents to donate their cord blood would be a good idea. I was never even asked about donating my daughter's cord blood. I would have done it if someone asked or if I knew that my insurance would cover it.
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