The effort to establish a national umbilical cord-blood bank is ramping up.
As the U.S. House is debating legislation that would destroy human embryos for their stem cells, noncontroversial adult stem cells continue to produce treatments for disease.
Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells that does not require the destruction of life. Collected at birth, cord blood can be designated for public banks or stored for private use.
Personal Storage
Families can choose to store their baby's cord blood as a precaution for future illness.
Personal storage is especially recommended when a family member has a disease known to be treatable through bone-marrow transplantation -- such as leukemia.
Public Banks
According to the National Marrow Donor Program, cord-blood banks collect, process, test and store donated umbilical cord blood -- frozen as a unit available to transplant. When a donor match is found, the cord-blood stem cells can be used to treat the existing condition.
Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family Action, explained that more than 70 illnesses and diseases can be treated using adult stem cells.
"Public banks make the resource available to everyone," she said. "Parents pay no fees for donating cord blood to a public bank, but some pre-donation arrangements are required. So they should talk to hospital officials where they plan to give birth."
Some states are proactively developing such "life-affirming donation" systems, Earll added.
"For instance, Georgia recently passed a law establishing a statewide donation system," she said. "Under the new law, pregnant women will be asked if they want to donate to the cord-blood bank when they give birth."
The federal government should watch and learn, Earll said.
"Stem cells from umbilical cord blood have proven to be a source of healing for many Americans," she said. "The promotion and development of such resources is a wise use of our tax dollars and efforts. It's a win-win for everyone involved."
Meanwhile, the U.S. House is poised to vote on legislation that would use federal tax dollars to destroy human life under the guise of "lifesaving" research.
Ashley Horne, federal issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action, pointed out that the president has indicated he would veto the legislation. It passed the Senate, but fell short of the votes needed to override a veto.
"The resurrection of S. 5 is a political maneuver by the Democrats to draw attention to a dead issue," she said. "Adult stem cells trump embryonic stem cells every time."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
You can learn more about S. 5 by reading this CitizenLink article.
Visit the National Marrow Donor Program's Web site to learn more about how to donate umbilical cord blood.
Visit Focus on Social Issues to learn more about the difference between destructive embryonic stem-cell research and adult stem-cell research.
TAKE ACTION
Urge your representative to protect human life by opposing S. 5. If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, click on the blue "Oppose S. 5" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center. Otherwise, click on this link.
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
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