Are you saying there is a problem with this? I'd like to know what it is. I've been familiar with this kind of thing in New Zealand for almost a generation. If we use cord blood, we don't need to kill embryos or fetuses or children to further the 'research'. I'm thinking that liberal Richard Branson will harm the agenda of the fetus killing industry using the political cover of 'stem cell research'.
No. It seems like a new flat fee, split sample, public/private business model to expand blood and tissue matches.
"This is completely uncharted territory - we can't say whether samples will or will not be useful."
One problem I worry about is that the already small and fragile cord blood sample will be compromised by dividing so that there's not enough for any use in patients.
I've read that only 1 in 10 cord blood samples are "viable" - large enough volume or quality of cells.
http://www.lifeethics.org/www.lifeethics.org/2006/09/1-in-10-how-lucky-do-you-feel.html
In Texas, we have a public State cord blood bank. Just as when you or I donate blood to the blood bank, the cord blood is banked for use in transplants and in research. The chances that any of our babies will need their cord blood cells - at least with current technology - is 1 in 2400 to 1 in 200,000.
(More info and reference at the link above.)
The goal is to store 150,000 or so units, so there will be enough to go around.
Unfortunately, only 4 hospitals are set up with the facilities and the dedicated nurse (to process the samples) that seem to be necessary.
However, San Antonio University hospital delivers a lot of babies, as I'm sure the others in the Valley and in Dallas do.
We have 300,000-400,000 births in Texas each year, so we could be supplying the world!