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Family Forum / Pregnancy / Pregnancy / October 2004Nobody wants our cord blood? (Houston)
Hi, we decided we want to donate (not bank) our cord blood. Problem is that I've called a coupla local places and nobody's called back, and our OB, though he supports the idea of donating it, doesn't know who takes it as a donation. Does anyone know of anyone in the Houston area who wants and will come and collect donated cord blood? I had thought this was pretty precious. Thanks. Is it to do with some kind of law relating to cord blood and it's use? I know that here in N.Z you can store your babies blood but it can only be used to the baby from which it came from. So I take that to mean you could not donate it. I think cord blood donation is a FANTASTIC idea! and I would do it if I was able. Best wishes Pip > Hi, we decided we want to donate (not bank) our cord blood. Problem is that > I've called a coupla local places and nobody's called back, and our OB, > though he supports the idea of donating it, doesn't know who takes it as a > donation. Does anyone know of anyone in the Houston area who wants and will > come and collect donated cord blood? I had thought this was pretty precious. > Thanks. There seems to be a real limit on public cord blood banks. We have St. Jude's Children's research hospital here in Memphis, and I would have thought that if ANYONE would have a cord blood bank, they would since it can be used in lieu of bone marrow transplants for kids with leukemia, but it looks like the closest is St. Louis-and I'm not going to be delivering in a hospital 8 hours away from home! Now, if I want to pay someone to bank it, well, that's no trouble-I just can't donate it. I hate to let them just throw it away, but I also can't see spending thousands of dollars to store it with no familal history of any of the conditions where it could be used. i think the main prob is the funding to run this sort of donation program - they need to be collected quickly and stored, i guess the expense is huge. i wouldnt think there would be many people that would not donate if asked and it was easy and no cost? christine > Hi, we decided we want to donate (not bank) our cord blood. Problem is > that I've called a coupla local places and nobody's called back, and our > OB, though he supports the idea of donating it, doesn't know who takes it > as a donation. Does anyone know of anyone in the Houston area who wants > and will come and collect donated cord blood? I had thought this was > pretty precious. Thanks. > Hi, we decided we want to donate (not bank) our cord blood. I just read that Illinois just passed a law for health care workers to offer to publicly bank cord blood to all women who have just given birth. the article was in parents magazine. they were urging others to contact their local congressmen to pass the law in more states.... public banking can happen if the lawmakers are forced to offer it! renee Hi We also wanted to donate our cord, but our doctor explained that the federal funding of stem cell research has been withdrawn & thus no one accepts donations. Storing & maintaining the cord is too expensive for any organization without federal funding. Unfortunately. I will never understand how a country where state & church are seperate is so influenced by the church. It is very unfortunate! I keep thinking of how much could be done with just a few cords. > Hi, we decided we want to donate (not bank) our cord blood. Problem is that > I've called a coupla local places and nobody's called back, and our OB, > though he supports the idea of donating it, doesn't know who takes it as a > donation. Does anyone know of anyone in the Houston area who wants and will > come and collect donated cord blood? I had thought this was pretty precious. > Thanks. > Hi > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > unfortunate! I keep thinking of how much could be done with just a few > cords. Yikes! I hadn't heard that connection. What is even the logic from within that fundamentalist mind-set that leads to cord blood being a bad thing to do research on? Emily > > Hi > > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > from within that fundamentalist mind-set that leads to > cord blood being a bad thing to do research on? I can see it-as I understand it, the ban was on funding any research except on the 22 existing stem cell lines, regardless of the genesis of the cells. While most of the controversy has come over using embryonic tissue (which ties into abortion objections), I can see where it is affecting cord blood as well. Which is really sad, because I think most parents WOULD be more than willing to donate their baby's cord blood for public use if they don't want to pay to privately bank it, provided things like early clamping is avoided, since once the cord is cut, it is of no further use to the baby, and won't hurt to donate it. > Emily > Hi > > We also wanted to donate our cord, but our doctor explained that the > federal funding of stem cell research has been withdrawn & thus no one > accepts donations. Storing & maintaining the cord is too expensive for > any organization without federal funding. Your doctor is almost certainly misinformed. Yes, there is a funding problem, but it has nothing to do with the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research outside of the approved lines. For one thing, publicly banked cord blood is typically NOT used for research anyway. There are *very* *very* few banks that provide cord blood for research, and they tell customers specifically that their cord blood will (or may) be used for research, not banked for a recipient's use someday. The problem is simply that it costs money to harvest, process, and store cord blood donations. Since the donors aren't paying the money, *someone* has to. There's a pretty short list of public banks, and they mostly accept donations from a limited geographical area (typically only from hospitals where they have staff on hand). There just isn't a public bank near Houston. The only public bank in Texas is in San Antonio, and it only accepts donations from local hospitals. There is only one bank that accepts cord blood donations from anywhere, anytime (http://www.cryo-intl.com/cordblooddonation.html) but you have to have all your paperwork in by the 35th week (some of their cord blood does to go research as opposed to being banked for future treatment). The Red Cross does some cord blood banking, but their budget for cord blood banking was slashed something like 75 percent last year. Best wishes, Ericka >> Hi >> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > blood banking, but their budget for cord blood banking was > slashed something like 75 percent last year. Thanks for this informative response and to all others who responded. I called the number at the link above and they confirmed the cutoff is at the 35th week. Since we missed that, looks like we won't be donating. > >> Hi > >> [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > called the number at the link above and they confirmed the cutoff is at the > 35th week. Since we missed that, looks like we won't be donating. Thanks also for the information-I'm going to contact them as well, and see if I am considered acceptable or not (It wouldn't surprise me to be denied given my medical history and complications). I was talking about donating the cord, not banking it. >> Hi >> [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > Best wishes, > Ericka *I was talking about donating the cord, not banking it. * But the public bank is the place that accepts the donation. Unless you had some other idea. What were you thinking - you could donate it to an individual human being? *Ericka Kammerer wrote: * *> *>> Hi *>> *>> We also wanted to donate our cord, but our doctor explained that the *>> federal funding of stem cell research has been withdrawn & thus no one *>> accepts donations. Storing & maintaining the cord is too expensive for *>> any organization without federal funding. *> *> *> Your doctor is almost certainly misinformed. Yes, there is a *> funding problem, but it has nothing to do with the ban on federal *> funding for embryonic stem cell research outside of the approved *> lines. For one thing, publicly banked cord blood is typically *> NOT used for research anyway. There are *very* *very* few banks *> that provide cord blood for research, and they tell customers *> specifically that their cord blood will (or may) be used for research, *> not banked for a recipient's use someday. *> The problem is simply that it costs money to harvest, *> process, and store cord blood donations. Since the donors *> aren't paying the money, *someone* has to. There's a pretty *> short list of public banks, and they mostly accept donations from *> a limited geographical area (typically only from hospitals where *> they have staff on hand). There just isn't a public bank *> near Houston. The only public bank in Texas is in San Antonio, *> and it only accepts donations from local hospitals. There is *> only one bank that accepts cord blood donations from anywhere, *> anytime (http://www.cryo-intl.com/cordblooddonation.html) but *> you have to have all your paperwork in by the 35th week (some *> of their cord blood does to go research as opposed to being *> banked for future treatment). The Red Cross does some cord *> blood banking, but their budget for cord blood banking was *> slashed something like 75 percent last year. *> *> Best wishes, *> Ericka *>  SignatureHillary Israeli, VMD Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read." --Groucho Marx Well the public bank does not accept donations (at least where I live in California). > *I was talking about donating the cord, not banking it. > * [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] > *> Ericka > *> > Well the public bank does not accept donations (at least where I live in > California). Doesn't accept donations from your hospital, or doesn't accept donations at all? If the former, that's common. Most public banks are very limited in where they'll accept donations from. If the latter, that's a contradiction in terms. A public cord blood bank is *defined* as one which accepts donations for future use by unrelated recipients. *Private* cord blood banks are those where people can store cord blood for their own family's use at some future date. (And, of course, some institutions do both public and private banking.) The National Marrow Donor Program has the largest group of affiliated public cord blood banks. On their website (http://www.marrow.org/NMDP/cord_blood_bank_list.html) they maintain lists of cord blood banks affiliated with the NMDP as well as a list of public cord blood banks which are not affiliated. The two lists include the vast majority of public cord blood banks available in the US. Best wishes, Ericka *Well the public bank does not accept donations (at least where I live in *California). Well, that was kind of Ericka's point. It's expensive to store the stuff. SignatureHillary Israeli, VMD Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read." --Groucho Marx > I was talking about donating the cord, not banking it. When you donate, you donate to a public bank. That's what public banking *is*. (Private banking is when you have it stored for your own possible future use.) Best wishes, Ericka > Hi > > We also wanted to donate our cord, but our doctor explained that the > federal funding of stem cell research has been withdrawn & thus no one > accepts donations. Storing & maintaining the cord is too expensive for > any organization without federal funding. There is federal funding for stem cell research. It is only human embryonic stem cell research that is limited to specific cell lines already in existence: http://stemcells.nih.gov/research/registry/ You can go here: http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/crisp/crisp_query.generate_screen to search for current NIH awardees. It allows you to search by subject. It's responding really slowly right now so I couldn't see if there is any currently funded research on cord blood stem cells. I bet there is though. Here's the NIH FAQ on embryonic stem cell research: http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/faqs.asp Oh, and look at this: http://www.cordblood.org/public/insights/ It looks like the congress passed an umbilical cord banking bill to provide funds for banking cord blood. Mary > > Hi > > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > see if there is any currently funded research on cord blood > stem cells. I bet there is though. Following up my own post: A search of this database using stem and cell and cord and blood for the years 2002-2004 returns 265. The actual number of grants funded by the NIH is less than that because multi year grants are reported more than once, but there certainly is federally funded research on cord blood stem cells. I expect most researchers that use human cord blood in their research are associated with hospitals that deliver babies and directly approach the mother to get consent and have mechanism in place at that institution to harvest the cord blood. Mary |
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