Umbilical cord blood banking has been a new topic for the media and public. Science has shown there are copious benefits and a few drawbacks with the use of cord blood. One of these drawbacks is the cost of cord blood banking. If insurance companies were to be mandated to cover cord blood banking, then more people could reap in the benefits of having cord blood stored.
Umbilical cord blood was formerly believed of as a waste product. Now it is known that cord blood has two types of stem cells which offer multiple treatment possibilities (Waller-Wise, 2011). Cord blood contains hematopoietic stem cells and pluripotent stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cell can be utilized for regeneration of blood and immune system. Pluripotent stem cells have the capability to produce multiple tissue types of the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm (Einstein & Merkatz, 2008). Both types of stem cells show the ability to be adapted into the treatment of a substantial range of diseases including neurologic, cardiovascular, endocrine, orthopedic, and ophthalmic conditions (Einstein & Merkatz, 2008). Stem cells can be utilized by transplant. Four principal types of physical disease that can be treated with stem cell transplants including blood disorders, congenital metabolic disorders, immunodeficiencies, and certain cancers (Waller-Wise, 2011). Some examples of diseases are Sickle-cell anemia, Tay-Sachs’ disease, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, certain leukemias, and many more (Waller-Wise, 2011). It is recommended that persons with family history of any of the known diseases that can be helped with stem cell transplant consider cord blood banking.
Insurance companies will need to know that funding banking of cord blood is going to have more benefits than risk. Treatment of these types of diseases is one of the benefits. Although this treatment is similar to treatment with bone marrow, there are multiple more advantages with cord blood use. The one advantage is the ease to collect the cord blood. Next, there is no risk to the mother or child because it can be obtained from the placenta (Einstein & Merkatz, 2008). There is less time necessary for processing, which means it is available sooner. There is a lesser change for to develop graft versus host disease because it is much easier to find a match (Waller-Wise, 2011). Research of stem cell technology has plentiful possibilities for future development. Emerging indications are being researched to treat type 1 diabetes mellitus and some neurologic injuries such as cerebral palsy.
Stem cell research began in 1956 when Dr. E Donnall Thomas performed the first bone marrow transplant (“Adult stem cells are not more promising,” 2007). Since that time, research has evolved into obtaining cells from a variety of tissues. According to stem cell research professors, Ariff Bongso and Eng Hin Lee (2005), “Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the human body that are capable of becoming cells, each with new specialized functions” (p. 2). Stem cells are in various adult tissues, such as bone marrow, the liver, the epidermis layer of skin, the central nervous system, and eyes. They are also in other sources, such as fetuses, umbilical cords, placentas, embryos, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are cells from adult tissues that have been reprogrammed to pluripotency. Most stem cells offer multipotent cells, which are sparse...
Stem cells can help cure diseases, repair damaged organs, and replace the need for organ donors. Stem cells may play a major role in cancer research, treatment, and maybe even a cure. Using stem cells in better treatments for diseases can give economic gains for society. According to the Mayo Clinic, over 100 million suffer from diseases that eventually may be treated more effectively or even cured with embryonic stem cell research (“Stem Cell Transplant”). This may be the greatest opportunity to alleviate the suffering of humans. Stem cell research has a lot of potential; there is a long list of diseases and other conditions that stem cells may be able to treat and possibly one day
Stem cells are an ongoing research project in which new discoveries are being made about them, and researchers are learning how to use them in new ways. The three current kinds of stem cells all prove to have their own challenges when it comes to using them. The important thing is finding out which stem cell is right for the patient and how much of an ethical concern there is when it comes to using the stem cell. As we learn the best way to use them and they become more popular in the medical field, stem cells will become a new weapon in the fight against certain diseases.
There are three ways to acquire a sample of stem cells. The first method is very controversial, which is the extraction of an embryonic cell. This embryonic cell can be extracted from aborted fetuses, with the permission of the woman having the abortion. Most people find it unethical to use the fetuses. However, if you do not use it, it just goes to waste. Why not let the fetus help save someone’s life? The second method to extract stem cells are through umbilical cords. The umbilical cord is rich with stem cells. Blood cells from the newborn baby can be used the moment it...
In the meantime, while several studies revolve around UCB banking pros and cons, a surprisingly little or no research has examined the key contributing factors in private cord blood banking in marketing-oriented literature review. In view of this gap in prior studies, this research investigated the factors motivating people to bank UCB. The research draws on the concept of perceived risk to propose a conceptual model to address the hypothesized relationships. We propose a conceptual framework to point out whether UCB awareness, usability, reference group, price and disease history may influence the perceived risk and accordingly behavioral intention to privately bank UCB stem cells.
The New England Journal of Medicine (2005) states that a Cord Blood Transplant is when the blood from a newborns umbilical cord is taken and given to another infant. Healthy umbilical cord blood is new and has little to none bacteria or diseases that could harm someone. Usually the placenta and umbilical cord is thrown out, but in recent research it is found that the blood from the umbilical cord and placenta can help prevent or slow down Krabbe Disease. According to Escolar, Yelin, & Poe (2006) about 90% of the children that were used in their study for
The Mayo Clinic defines a blood transfusion as “a routine medical procedure in which donated blood is provided to you through a narrow tube placed within a vein in your arm”. The first human blood transfusion on record was conducted by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, a French physician during the late 1600’s. Although Denys’ transfusions weren’t sound proof and often written off as unorthodox, he unknowingly ushered in a new era of medicine and laid the foundation for modern advances in Hematology. I choose this topic because I volunteer to donate blood four times a year alongside thousands of other people. On average these donations help save 4.5 million Americans that would die in a years’ time without a blood transfusion. These generous people
Therefore, many parents believe that banking umbilical cord is unique opportunity to save these stem cells in order to guarantee 100% match for their baby in case treatments is ever required6. One of the few disadvantages of this source of stem cells, there are limit amount of haematopoietic stem cells that can be extracted from each cord blood units. In addition, the UCB cells take longer to engraft than do stem cells from more mature sources. This delay leaves the recipients vulnerable to infection. In spite of certain disadvantage cord blood has huge potential in medical treatments3. Likewise, donating cord blood is generous gift that basically doesn’t cause harm or problem to the donors and may save or improve quality of someone’s life4. However, UCB stem cell donation and preservation are endorsed by many world religions. Though, there are many ethical concern including proper informed consent, genetic screening of the donors, autologous & allogenic UCB storage, truth in advertising by private banks and distributive justice6. In addition to cord blood banking, the expectant parents also have a chance to store their new-born baby’s cord tissues. Umbilical cord tissue (Wharton’s jelly) is rich source of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)10. It has abilities to self-renew and differentiate into many tissues cellular tissues including adipocytes, osteocytes, chondrocytes, cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes and nerve cells. Their proliferative properties have abilities to migrate at site of inflammation which makes MSCs highly desirable for tissue engendering and cells based
There are people who enjoy the fact that they can use their own bone marrow and stem cells to treat themselves. There are many diseases and injuries that stem cells may be able to cure. Alone there are positive outcomes using stem cells, there stands debate on the use of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells should be used to sustain life because they can rebuild organs despite the concerns.
Stem cell research is not necessarily bad and this research can lead to a positive breakthrough in the medical field. Researchers and consumers have a mutual interest in distinguishing the good research from the bad.
Somatic stem cell therapy is one of the "powers of stem cells." When leukocytes, also known as white blood cells, begin to behave abnormally a condition known as leukemia forms within the body. One way to cure this disease is by a stem cell bone marrow transplant. First, doctors use chemotherapy to kill most of the abnormal cells, and then they replace the diseased bone marrow with a donor's healthy bone marrow. This website explains the process of treating leukemia, an otherwise deadly disease, curable with the help of stem cells. I plan to mention the new discoveries involving stem cells, such as the stem cell-rich umbilical cords in newborn infants. In the new procedures, the recipient has a significantly lower chance to reject the stem
The idea behind this is that no harm is coming to the fetus or the mother in the case of a stillborn or a miscarriage or the use of cord blood. The umbilical cord is detached from the infant right after birth therefore using the cord blood and those stem cells would also not cause any harm to the infant. Stem cell research becomes unethical when fetuses are being aborted for the purpose of the stem cell research, this is not only risking the mother but also killing a human being (the
Blood donation is a very essential procedure in the health system. The process entails collecting blood from willing donors, testing it and then separating it into its components so that it can be used on patients. Whereas hospitals are the main users of the donated blood, they are not exactly authorised to collect, test and separate it in their own premises. Most of the health institutions get the blood from larger bodies such as the Red Cross or other Community based blood groups. Though initially faced with lots of problems, blood transfusion has been used since 1667 as a solution to some of human illnesses. Since then to now, hospitals have grown so dependent on blood donation and transfusion to save human life. With it being used and applied
...there are some risk factors in using stem cell for therapeutic approaches, hematopoietic stem cell therapy by bone marrow transplantation has already been proofed to be safe if donors’ background and screening, cell contamination, HLA matching and opportunistic or nosocomial infections during immunocompromised period were carefully monitored and controlled. Still, other types of stem cell therapies, despite of their good therapeutic efficacy, are remain in experimental stage and need more data to support and demonstrate the safety in clinical trials. More understanding of stem cell biology is also required in order to keep stem cell under controlled and avoid some complications that they might cause. So, to pave the way for successful stem cell therapy, research in this extent is needed to pursue to maximized therapeutic efficiency with highest safety in patients.
Many people deem that donating blood is immoral because of reasons such as wrongful doing by the nurses and professionals. Individuals like this have not looked at the facts nor donated, they fail to realize that the donation process is safe and supervised. A large number of individuals fear that too much blood might be taken, the person taking the blood might injure you and miss a vein and in general they are frightened of what m...