Umbilical Cord Blood Bank

why is there so much controversy over umbilical cord blood?

i dont know much about this subject at all except that some parents are choosing to freeze the blood from their new born babies umbilical cord and placenta for future use because it could potentially save the childs life in the case that something should happen. thats all i know about the subject and im hearing that a lot of people are saying that it is wrong or something and i dont understand why it would be wrong to do that. if its not hurting the child or mother what could possibly be wrong with doing this. can anyone shed some light on this situation, im a very curious person :D also im curious about stem cell research, another topic i am unfamiliar with. why is stem cell research bad when from what i gather can do SO much good and save so many lives once mastered. i read that they use embryos to do research with and that most of them come from left over from in-vitro fertilization? and that these embryos are in most cases discarded anyway, so where is the wrong? *** ps. im not posting these questions to start arguments or to offend anyone, i honestly know nothing about these subjects and i have a fascination with learning everything i possibly can. im am simply just a curious teen seeking knowledge***

Public Comments

1. the stem-cells in the umbilical cord make it a controversial topic. religion plays a huge role in how stem-cell research is portrayed, but personally, i'm with you.
2. The cord blood contains stem cells. There are a couple of different controversies. The private cord blood banks do a good job advertising, and make many new parents feel like a lot more can be done with it than actually can currently be done. So you have some people saying you should save it and you are a bad parent if you dont, and other people saying that you dont have to. And then there is the stem cell part of it. Because the media does not do a very good job of explaining the difference in the diff types of stem cells, a lot of people think any stem cell kills a baby. Embryonic stem cells are the real controversy of stem cell research. They are taken from an embryo that is about 5 days old, and it kills the embryo. Many people are against embryonic stem cell research because it kills the embryo, and they view it as murder. On the other side of that, we are talking about embryos that are going to die regardless of stem cell research. The embryos used in the research are ones that were created for use in IVF, but were either not viable for that purpose, or left over. If they dont get used in the research, they get thrown in the biowaste and incinerated. For a while, fetal stem cells were researched, and these stem cells were obtained from abortions and miscarriages if the mother had donated the remains to scientific research. That caused a huge uproar, because the pro life people were afraid that women were getting paid to have abortions. All this ties in to cord blood stem cells because people dont understand that its a different type of stem cell. They know that embryonic and fetal stem cells come from dead babies, and they assume that cord blood stem cells do as well. That is not true. Cord blood stem cells come from the cord blood and afterbirth, that are removed after a live and healthy birth - and they come from things that HAVE to be removed, regardless of the stem cells.