[Phantom Lord]

From what I have heard on these matters when our son was born is it is a waste of money for 99.99% of people.

[So Cal Rocket]

On the other hand, I could never forgive myself if my child needed the blood in the future and I had donated it.

Could you live with yourself if someone else's baby died because you didn't donate the blood?

[Rodney King]

We just had our second child, and this didn't even occur to us. Seems like the blood was just all over the floor anyway.

[Veto!]

I'd bank it as an insurance policy, just in case. With the rapid advance of science, what may seem useless today might be extremely useful tomorrow. However, I have no clue about technicalities involved.

[asgardshill]

I don't see any ethical problems this would pose. If you can afford to do so, my opinion is bank it in your own family's name, then donate it when it becomes clear that it won't be needed (if you can even do that).

[Veto!]

And secondarily, if you have more than one child, I believe the DNA is so similar with siblings that they can obtain benefits from each other's stem cells if necessary.

I'd feel no guilt about saving it for your child. It's his or hers after all.

[Taliesan]

All of life entails evaluating probabilities. 6 years ago my wife and I decided the probability of our son ever needing the blood is so low that the several thousand dollars' expense was not worth it. We knew there was a microcosmic possibility we would look back and regret, but the whole "if I knew then what I know now" sentiment is a fallacy and the guilt from it is a fallacy.

You can't remove all the theoretical risk from life.

Donating it for free seems like an easy call, though. We were unaware of that option.

[ArrogantBustard]

1) As regards banking blood, you're betting on a very improbable event occurring. I don't know anyone who has actually benefitted from doing so; I, myself, and many people I know have had transfusions consequent to surgery without ill effect. If you are truly strapped for cash, I think it's seriously questionable whether this is a wise use of your limited funds. IMO.

2)A point of order. I gather from the tone of your post that you are actually pregnant. If that is the case, you are not a "mother to be", and the contents of your womb are not a "baby to be". You are a mother. The child you are carrying is a baby. Those are medical facts, which many in this society would like to deny or obfuscate for political and ideological reasons. Words mean things, and I think it important to use them correctly. End rant.

[fatima]

Bank it ,you can change your mind later.Right now you are not sure.

[Bikers4Bush]

Bank it.

[pesto]

Do it, you probably have fire insurance that you'll never need, that's how my husband and I looked at it when we did it when our daughter was born. The good good thing is siblings can use the cord blood, so you only have to do it once!

[Nataku X]

If the umbical cord can be kept for the rest of your son's life, I'd definitely bank it. My boyfriend's father died of leukemia--it is the most common adult cancer. My first boyfriend's father, OTOH, got an umbical cord donation and his leukemia was cured. (Yes, I had 2 boyfriends whose father had serious leukemia.)

[An.American.Expatriate]

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but, having faced this question two times over the last 4 years I would pose these questions:

1. Have any of your relatives suffered from Leukemia?
2. Same for your husband?
3. Any History of other blood disorders, etc on either side?

If no, you can probably safely donate it.

If yes, you may want to discuss this very extensively with a pediatrician or other specialist before making any decisions.

[ebt]

Odds on you needing it are slim. So most likely you will lose whatever money you put into it. However, you never know... In case you haven't seen the latest news, a paralyzed South Korean lady is walking again due to umbilical cord stem cells...

http://www.illinoisleader.com/letters/lettersview.asp?c=21244

[adiaireton8]

My younger daughter's life was saved by a cord blood donor. She is now five years old. I have no idea who the donor was, but you cannot imagine how grateful my wife and I are to that donor. For a photo of her, see:

http://www.geocities.com/adiaireton8/Portrait.html

-A8

[wmichgrad]

My wife had a coworker last year whose baby had testicular cancer and later leukemia. They saved the cord blood, but I do not believe that it was used in his treatment. All cancer is currently in remission. At least they had it if there was a possibility of using it for his treatment. Considering the total cost of delivering a baby, I do not believe that saving the cord blood is all that much. I know my wife and I will be discussing this for our second baby due in April.

[Wonder Warthog]

Bank it!

You can always donate it later. If banked with a private firm, it seems to me that if a tissue match is found for a "non-family" donee, that they would re-imburse you for the storage fees.

[demecleze]

The stem cells from the cord blood are the issue here. As science progresses in the area there will probably be incremental improvements and such. That will probably mean that there will be no substitute for ones own stem cells for a while. As therapeutic cloning is ethically thorny but also has many problems with the 'resetting' of all the genes, and development of cancer.

The fetal stem cells in the cord blood are a perfect match for your child. In medicine, matching is usually a relative matter. In the case of using ones own cells, it becomes an absolute value.

The field may not even progress to the use of stem cells for therapy for a while, and even then stem cells taken from adult tissues may supersede fetal or embryonic.

So you are dealing with a number of unknowns. All of which are dependent on many things and there is no way to predict advancement in the field as the information is simply not there.

Perhaps the best idea is to integrate the data that you do know.

There is a questionnaire that is given to women to determine what defects to test for in a developing embryo/fetus. This mainly asks the ancestry of the parents in great detail and combined with known family medical history is quite good at predicting the probability of said defects. Maybe doing something like this would give you a percent chance of you child developing a condition that could potentially require the use of the stem cells. Compare this to other risks in their likelihood and see if you can live with it.

This sounds like quite an industry so its a good idea to make an informed decision.

[FR_addict]

Is it possible to save half for the possibility of private use and give the other half for public use?

[Dog Gone]

How long can you bank blood? I thought all blood had an expiration date.