Cord
blood has been found to be a major source of stem cells. This can
easily be collected, stored and later used to cure the same person
or any other matching person who is in need of stem cells to cure
diseases like anemia.
As more
and more people are realizing the uses and benefits of cord blood,
the need for many cord blood related services are increasing. For this
reason cord blood related services are being offered by a number of
hospitals, cord blood banks and various other organizations. The first
kind of service that is being provided is information distribution.
Various kinds of information related to the uses of cord blood cells,
the easy and safe manner in which it can be collected, the collection
process, storage and retrieval etc are being spread using different
media like pamphlets, news papers, articles, television advertisements
etc. This
increases the awareness in people regarding the use of saving or donating
the cord blood that is normally discarded after a babys birth
and also provides a lot of information about the various services
being offered by private as well as public organizations. Other
kinds of cord blood services offered differ based on the individual
hospitals or the specific organization. In case of a public cord blood
bank, the cord blood is collected free of charge from the hospital
and then if found eligible, will be treated and stored. This
cord blood is available to a matching person in case a need for cord
blood or stem cell arises. Public organizations provide this kind
of cord blood services free of charge Private
cord blood banks offer some more services compared to public sector
banks. In these cases a person might be able to store and reserve
the cord blood from their baby for future use. This blood is available
for the donor at any time they request for it. These
kinds of cord blood services are offered by private banks for a fee.
This kind of storage is being opposed by a group of people as this
facility tend to reduce the amount of cord blood that is available
for any patient as people might tend to reserve the cord blood for
private use even though they might not need it. These
opponents claim that if public cord blood bank services are encouraged
and more donations take place, there is a good enough chance that
anyone requesting for cord blood can easily get it and there might
not be a need for reserving it at all. d.
The
need for Cord blood services