Letters
Hematologic diseases
Volume 189 - Issue 10

Umbilical cord blood banking: public good or private benefit?

Authors:  Gabrielle N Samuel, Ian H Kerridge and Tracey A O’Brien

Med J Aust 2008; 189 (10): 599-600. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb02198.x
Published online: 17 November 2008
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In reply: Roberts asserts that we are biased, paternalistic and driven by an ideological objection to private umbilical cord blood (UCB) storage. While this is impressive rhetoric, it bears little resemblance to the points made in our article.1

Contrary to Roberts’ assertion, we do not object to private UCB storage. Our primary concern is that marketing campaigns make misleading or grandiose claims about the possible application of privately stored UCB in cancer care and regenerative medicine. For, although stem cell research does have great promise, it remains clinically unproven in the management of degenerative conditions. Offering hope of cure or amelioration of illness based on scientific speculation is enormously problematic, especially when directed at vulnerable parents concerned about their unborn child. While some private UCB banks take great care to avoid deliberate deception, many do not.2,3 We agree that parents should be able to decide for themselves how and if to store their child’s UCB, but they need accurate information to do so.

Finally, Roberts asserts that there is no shortage of public UCB units or donors. In reality, there is a vast shortage of UCB units available to ethnic minority and Indigenous patients.4 North Caucasian donation also needs to be maintained, particularly as the impact of double-cord transplantation becomes apparent.4

Authors

  • Gabrielle N Samuel1
  • Ian H Kerridge1,2
  • Tracey A O’Brien3
  • 1. Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
  • 2. Haematology Department, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, NSW.
  • 3. Centre for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: gsamuel@med.usyd.edu.au

References

View this article on Wiley Online Library