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I'm not up on the technology behind cryopreservation, but here's something from the viacord.com website:

"After testing, your baby's cord blood unit is cryopreserved in cryoprotected blood bags at -196 degrees Celsius."

Unless your 50-year-old freezer could reach -196 degrees, I'd say the answer to your question was "yes." :-D

No one knows how long the frozen blood will be viable. The technology has only been in existence for approximately 10 years.

Technology in this area is advancing slowly but steadily. In ten years, research may have advanced to the point that all types of diseases can be cured with cord blood, for all we know.

My point is this: Consider it insurance for not only your child, but for you and other members of your family. Frankly, I don't understand why people don't do this as a matter of routine if they have the money to do it.

Current uses for cord blood:

http://www.viacord.com/index.asp?p=26

Cord blood stem cell therapy has already been
 used in the treatment of these diseases: *

CANCERS

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
Burkitt's lymphoma
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
Juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia (JCML)
Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML)
Liposarcoma
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)
Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML)
Neuroblastoma
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma
Langerhan's cell histiocytosis

BONE MARROW FAILURE SYNDROMES
Severe aplastic anemia 
Diamond-Blackfan anemia 
Dyskeratosis congenita 
Fanconi anemia 
Amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia 
Kostmann's syndrome 

HEMOGLOBINOPATHIES/BLOOD DISORDERS
Sickle-cell anemia 
ß-thalassemia (Cooley's anemia) 

INBORN ERRORS OF METABOLISM
Adrenoleukodystrophy 
Batten disease (inherited neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis) 
Gunther disease 
Hunter syndrome 
Hurler syndrome 
Krabbe disease (globoid cell leukodystrophy) 
Lesch-Nyhan disease 
Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome
 
IMMUNODEFICIENCES 
Omenn's syndrome 
Severe combined immune deficiency (SCID and SCID-ADA) 
Reticular dysplasia 
Thymic dysplasia 
Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome 
X-linked lymphoproliferative disease 
Leukocyte adhesion deficiency 

OTHER DISEASES
Evans syndrome 
Familial hemaphagocytic lymphohistiocytosis 
EBV-assoc. hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis 
Osteopetrosis 

* Although the potential use of umbilical cord blood is
 expanding rapidly, the odds that a family without a 
defined risk will need to use their child's umbilical cord 
blood are low. There is no guarantee that the umbilical 
cord blood will be a match for a family member or will 
provide a cure. Autologous cord blood stem cells will not 
guarantee suitable treatment for all inherited genetic 
diseases. As with any transplant therapy, therapeutic 
success depends upon many factors beyond the stem cells 
themselves including patient condition, type of disease,
recipient-donor relationship and matching, and other 
factors.

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Potential uses in the future:

http://www.viacord.com/index.asp?p=25

==========

Go read the information at the site and THEN make your decision. If you have the money, do it.

I would bet that most, if not all, of his legitimate "colleagues" are ready to strangle this guy. What a charlatan.