Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4.1.2 Cord-bloodbanking
Advances in the understanding of haematopoietic stem cells saw the
advent of a new phenomenon in transplantation medicine in
the early 1990s: umbilical cord-blood banking. One analysis of the
phenomenon of privatized cord-blood banking identifies interest first
developing around this practice after a patient was successfully treated
with cord blood instead of bone marrow for a rare genetic condition
in 1988 (Brown and Kraft, 2006). They argue that this then led to a
rapid expansion worldwide in both public and private banking
services (Brown and Kraft, 2006). Yet these two different models of
cord-blood banking operate according to entirely different rationales
(Brown and Kraft, 2006; Waldby, 2006). Public cord-blood banking,
for example, typically targets people of ethnic minorities in order to
shore up the public supply of HSCs for people in these categories
(Brown and Kraft, 2006). This is a political move that can be
interpreted as a function of the same emphasis on community building
that emerged with the development of blood banking in the aftermath
of the Second World War (Waldby, 2006). By contrast, private cord-
blood banks offer a form of insurance to parents of newborns,
whereby new parents can, for a fee, store their baby's umbilical cord
blood for their family's exclusive use. Data from one study suggests
that by 2006 approximately 25 per cent of worldwide cord-blood
banking was in the private sector (Brown and Kraft, 2006).
Interestingly, a third model has emerged, straddling both the
public and the private sector (Smith, 2009). Richard Branson's
Virgin Health Bank (
http://www.virginhealthbank.com
) offers two
options: a standard fee-for-service family banking service; and a
'community banking' service where a small amount is kept aside for
the family and the rest goes to a public bank. At the time of writing,
family banking costs £1,695 (£100 extra if you want to pay by
instalments over 12 months) while the community banking service is
£1,165 (with the same fee for paying by instalments). When a family
chooses 'community banking' with the Virgin Health Bank they are
both able to capitalize on the insurance offered by having their own
guaranteed supply of cord-blood for use in the future, and contribute
to a sense of community building by allowing 80 per cent of their
