It seems like relatively few debates about stem cells point out how much can be done using placental and cord blood stem cells, cells that are not obtained by killing a fetus. In fact, I just read about a grandfather-to-be who is making a special gift to his grandchildren by paying for the storage of their placental and cord blood stem cells so they could be used later, if needed, to provide medical assistance to his posterity. This commercial service is being offered by LifeBank USA. I’ll be looking into this myself. (Disclosure: LifeBank is a subsidiary of my favorite biotech company, Celgene, for which I am a very happy stockholder.)
Placental Stem Cells: Why Not?
“instead of killing a fetus”
You aren’t really killing a fetus though… it isn’t like a fetus has to be taken out of a woman’s body to get embryonic stem cells… these can be harvested from non-viable embryos from test tubes (IVF leftovers, that would be discarded anyway).
Placental and cord storage are quite expensive for the average young Mormon family.
And there’s a slippery slope twixt “non-viable embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization” and a fetus.
I believe that anything that is meant to benefit the human race can be done in such a way that it doesn’t violate God’s laws. I really believed that we would find a way to utililze stem cells without using fetal material… and here it is.
Thanks for posting about this.
There’s a HUGE difference between “non-viable” and “would be discarded anyway.”
As a Christian, I stand in agreement with LDS – abortion is wrong and discarding “non-viable” embryos is wrong. Pro-Life all the way!
Having worked in the health insurance industry for 12 years now, I can tell you that what Ginger said about expense is correct. Insurance does not cover cord blood storage and if you want to do it, my hat goes off to you, but you will pay a lot of money!
The last time I checked, it cost $500.00 just to OBTAIN the cord blood from a newborn, and that’s before any tests, storage, or any other services are rendered.