Ask Slashdot: Store Umbilical Cord Blood — and If So, Where? 321
gambit3 writes "My wife and I are expecting our first child in 3 months, and one of the decisions we still have to make is whether to store our baby's cord blood. Even if we decide the upfront cost is worth it, there is still the question of using a public bank or a private one (and which one to trust), and whether to also store umbilical cord tissue for stem cells. Does you have any experience or suggestions?"
Public (Score:5, Insightful)
The chance that someone else is going to need your cord blood is way, way higher than the chance that you'll need it for your own family. Give it to the public bank.
Plus, the private banks are damned expensive.
Donate (Score:3, Insightful)
The scientific benefits are still uncertain, and the statistics as to whether your child would need it are pretty low. Better to donate, save your money, and increase the odds that someone will be helped
Alternative: donate it (Score:5, Insightful)
People do this? (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone without children, WTF are you all talking about and why do people do this?
Re:Alternative: donate it (Score:5, Insightful)
You would be better off buying lottery tickets for your kids with the money that you're spending. At least there is a chance it could be used for something.
If you really feel the need to do this, use a public registry that uses the cord blood for real research, not a private company that's just hoping you will pay them every month.
Not Worth It (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say not worth it...
I have a 2.5 (mine) and a 1.5 year old (foster child) and to me if you would need this I think they would probably have an indication of it before the kid is born. Things are so far along these days with the 4d ultrasounds and such...
Enjoy fatherhood. every 6 months they get more fun with the first 6 month being more of a family pet than a real person. Now at 2.5 years we are running around the backyard having squirt gun fights and she is coming up with all kinds of crazy views on the world. It goes quickly...
But yea, if you and the wife are healthy and she took care of herself the past number of months, the chances of ever needing it are very low.
by the time your kid will need it (Score:5, Insightful)
the tech will exist to derive stem cells from an adult
so you don't need it
Re:Public (Score:4, Insightful)
0.25% lifetime probability that your kid will ever need it in their entire lifetime. The math just doesn't work out to make it worth it (IMO) to collect it for their own use, especially given that there are many circumstances where peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow could be used just as easily and harvested when needed (cutting down that 0.25% even further).
Re:Drink it (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Drink it (Score:2, Insightful)
And my dog eats its own shit, that doesn't make it a good idea.
Re:Alternative: donate it (Score:4, Insightful)
You would be better off buying lottery tickets for your kids with the money that you're spending. At least there is a chance it could be used for something.
Consider that the cost of harvesting cord blood is about $1,500 and storing it per year is about $100. For 18 years you spend $3,300 or 1,100 powerball tickets.
Odds of winning the powerball are 1,100 to 195,249,054 (0.0000056%)
Odds of being afflicted with type 1 diabetes and being a part of a case study [clinicaltrials.gov]: 8 in 100,000 (0.00008%)
So actually, you have better odds of actually needing and using your cord blood. Although, as many have suggested, donating is a noble option too.
You forgot to roll in there the odds of successful cord blood treatment of your type 1 diabetes...
Re:ViaCord (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:CBR is the one I used (Score:5, Insightful)
Putting it into a college fund would have been far more helpful to your children.