www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Stem cells - a morally LICIT way

Sorta reacting to the "unborn mother" thread. I was totally appalled when I heard about it too. ("Mom was aborted so I could be born!" AAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!!!!!)

I want to throw something POSITIVE in to the fray, and express my total bewilderment that various pro-life types haven't jumped on this particular bandwagon.

We've all heard the business about stem cells, yes? How they are hte body's play-doh, able to become, yadda, yadda, yadda. There have been various schemes for obtaining them, and we all know the most "popular" sources (Another use for Unborn Mama's parts!!)

We keep being told that God will not be outdone in generosity. It's 100% true, but we aren't always very good about accepting it.

The good Lord builds us with certain spare parts. Two kidneys. A liver waay bigger than we need. The list goes on. He also provides newborn babies with far more blood in the placenta and cord than they can possibly use.

Cord blood is rich in stem cells. It can be used in virtually any situation which would otherwise require a bone marrow transplant. (It may or may not be as "tweakable" in the lab as fetal cells, but I rather doubt they've done too much investigation.)

Cord blood can be extracted painlessly and easily after the cord is clamped, following the birth of a baby, whether it was a vaginal or cesaerian birth. Quite simply, the stuff saves lives. Or it could. The vast majority of cord blood is discarded as medical waste, because people simply don't know.

We are barraged by ads for private banking of cord blood, as an "insurance" policy for your family. Unless your family is especially prone to certain cancers, it usually easier to simply set fire to your money. What most folks don't know, because their DOCTORS don't know, and because there is an appalling lack of public exposure is that there are PUBLIC cord blood banks. It costs NOTHING to donate. The bank we used when my youngest son was born sent us a kit to take to the hospital, because most hospitals don't do it either. My son became a lifesaver when he was about three minutes old. He didn't need that extra cord blood, but I'm sure someone somewhere does. That precious packet was whisked away by FedEx to save lives while we enjoyed our newborn.

There are so many GENEROUS people in this country. If cord blood donation was easy (I had to dig and dig and dig to find a way) - just another option when you have a baby, I think people would respond. If even one in a HUNDRED new families chose to donate their baby's "spare," so many lives would be saved - and perhaps there would be enough cord blood around that researchers could REALLY find out whether these morally licit stem cells could be manipulated in the lab the way their poor illicit cousins can be.

Anyway, here's a biomedical issue y'all can support. I hope.

(And if you're not having a baby anytime soon, think about donating a pint of your own blood. How many times do you get a chance to know that something YOU did will help save lives? Blood donors can have that joy every 56 days...)

Cheers,

Sharon
Common-as-dirt Type O+

Coo - we are only allowed to donate blood every 14 weeks - I'm desperately trying to work it out that I will have given my 100th donation before they fling me out on age grounds - 76 under my belt now [ units NOT age before you folk make any nasty cracks ]

Yes - Cord blood donation is becoming more common here but we still can have problems as in some cases they still need to match donor and recipient and this is giving rise to legal problems.

Still looking for this morning's paper's URL for that very interesting article.

Anhelyna

I wish I could donate blood. When I was in the military, I couldn't give blood because of getting tattoos (long story). But now that I don't do that anymore , I can't give because of living in Europe for 2 years (mad cow). I keep trying at the hospital where I work when the Red Cross comes around, but they're still kicking me back. I hope they develop a reliable screen for it soon. I'm O+ too, and I know someone needs it somewhere.

Glenn
bearded sinner

Thanks Sharon,

That is awesome. When I had my babies, the oldest is 27, that was just becoming a thought. They were knew that the placenta was excellent for burn victims if I remember right. I do remember talk of what they might do with the cord and then it was still just a thought being put out there, nothing organized. This is truly wonderful news.

I recently heard or read somewhere, that they are able to use stem cells for people who are diabetic, and within an extremely short period of time the diabetes is gone. I wonder if there would be a similar application from the use of cells in the cord.

Dear Slave Lady,

Keep up the good work. After all God loves a cheerful giver .

Glenn,

I know that is hard also, not to be able to donate blood. My dad had malaria when he was in the Navy and has never been able to donate either.

Rose