Why Donate to Public Cord Blood Bank?

There was this very insightful article in the Straits Times on Saturday 25 October titled "Go Public When Banking Cord Blood" by this senior writer Andy Ho (whom Mommy adores for picking out interesting but overlooked topics and putting together logical discussions on them). It was something that Daddy and Mommy felt pretty strongly about since having done some research and speaking to Granduncle Steve (who gave us a lot of useful information). So Mommy ended up writing to the Straits Times forum about it. They contacted Mommy last night on the phone to verify my personal details, but didn't confirm if they will be publishing it. Then again, I thought I might as well share my thoughts here. The below was what I had submitted.

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I fully applaud Mr Andy Ho's insightful review "Go Public When Banking Cord Blood" published in The Straits Times dated 25 October 2008. Back in 2004 when I had my first child, my interest was naturally piqued when there was so much fanfare about banking a baby's cord blood. Like all parents, who doesn't want the best for their children since it was marketed as the best kind of insurance you can give to your child?

Fortunately, I did some research and discussed this option with my gynaecologist, who gave me very useful information on cord blood uses and its benefits and limitations. So did I bank my child's cord blood? No. The reason was simple. Like what Mr Andy Ho had mentioned, most of the conditions that cord blood stem cells may cure a baby of later in life would have been pre-existent in his or her cord blood. Plus back then, the fact that future uses of cord blood banking and the stem cells in there are still largely speculative doesn't warrant us spending so much money harvesting and storing it.

Now, I am not saying that cord blood banking is useless. In fact, evidence has it that it has been useful in treating blood related disorders and certain cancers. Bearing in mind that, I am all for public cord blood banking and have been persuading people around me to do that.

This is especially true for Asians. Why? I had learned from the Singapore Cord Blood Bank's (SCBB) website that overseas public cord blood banks do not have enough samples that match our (Asians) multi-ethnic profiles, which makes it even more compelling for us to donate our children's cord blood (if there are no complications at birth). I conclude that this meant cord blood from a largely Western pool will have a very different make-up from that of Asians.

While I respect that cord blood banking - private or public is a personal choice, I fully support going the public cord blood banking way (save those who opt for delayed clamping way and there are no complications at birth). It was unfortunate that my children were all born before SCBB was active, but I for one will definitely donate my child's cord blood if I ever have another child. Afterall, why not offer the opportunity to help save someone's life?
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Ok, I still have something to add which I had forgotten about. I'm not suggesting that we donate cord blood to the public pool because we won't be able to use it anyway if there are faulty cells. In other words, I don't mean that we donate what is inferior to the public pool. What I merely meant was that as it is a public pool and it costs good money to store them, the public banks will be even more stringent about the quality, so anything that is deemed less than what is "perfect" in their guidelines will probably be dumped, rather than kept. As for private banks, the main motivation is profit so it is in its interests to store that inventory of cord blood for as long as it is profitable and mutually desired.