Cord Blood Banking a.k.a Spending Your Child's College Money by Ivan S and Gage M Period 7

Cord Blood Banking is where during birth in the cycle of life, the blood from the babies umbilical cord (the cord that connects the mother and fetus to feed and expel waste) is saved (4). Now, Cord Blood Banking revolves around the idea and science of stem cells. Babies and feti have the most "flexible" stem cells, meaning those unspecialized cells can turn into basically any cell where adult stem cells can only turn into a few. With each stem cell, there is just a blank canvas waiting to be painted on for a purpose. Cord Blood Banking is a method of saving umbilical cord blood stem cells to be put in later use with the intent of helping fight a disease or illness (2). There is basically one benefit to this type of genetic engineering. It is to give a chance of life to people who have a disease or illness that can be life altering by using stem cells to help treat illnesses and diseases. The risks are that you could be paying large amounts of money for something that isn't very likely to happen. It isn't too often that people undergo stem cell treatment (3). Out of the 318.9 million people in the United States of America, only several tens of thousands have undergone stem cell treatment, and then if you do have the treatment, a person would still need to be aware of possible rejection where the body tries to fight off and kill those stem cells. Even worse, if the problem is a genetic defect or mutation, stem cells won't be affective because those same stem cells would have the same genetic defect (1).

Interviews-

1) With this knowledge, do you think blood should be banked?
Ally- Yeah because it could be useful.
Trevor- Well yeah, if it has the potential of saving a life.
Lindiana- Yeah I guess if it's the difference between life and death.
Monigue- Yes, so that you can help sick people get better
Ani- Yes because it can really help someone.

2) Do you think Cord Blood Banking could be revolutionary?
Ally- Sure because it can help lives.
Trevor- No not really because they're saving the blood, not doing the procedures.
Lindiana- Yeah because it could improve saving lives.
Monigue- Yes because it could help people get better.
Ani- Sure because over time ways of saving the blood could get better.

3) Do you see any negative outcomes?
Ally- No not really.
Trevor- I guess false hope if it turns out the disease can't be cured.
Lindiana- No because you're saving a life.
Monigue- No because the odds of it happening are low, so there won't really be any bad results.
Ani- Well it could take your money for something you won't even need.

4) Do you think Cord Blood Banking could impact society severely?
Ally- Yeah because it improves chances of saving a persons life.
Trevor- No not really because all you do is save blood.
Lindiana- Eh I don't know. I guess? It could change a persons life around.
Monigue- Yeah because it plays a role in a possible life saving incident.
Ani- Sure because it could improve how blood is stored.

5) Is the price worth it? (2-4 thousand initial processing plus hundreds a year)
Ally- To save a life, I definitely think so.
Trevor- Just to be on the safe side, I'd do it.
Lindiana- Eh, sure. It can be a failsafe.
Monigue- Well yeah, if you can save a life.
Ani- Definitely, because it's helping a person who is really sick and diseased.

Reflection-

Gage:

Cord Blood Banking is a way to save the stem cells of a child from the umbilical cord for later use incase the child develops a disease or disorder. This process could be considered immoral because it technically is saving a part of a human body for later use. While it could be considered moral because you’re saving the stem cells for later use if the child needs it to survive. I believe that saving the umbilical cord along with the cord blood is a good thing because it can, and has, save lives of children that need to be treated for a deadly diseases and disorders. Cord Blood banking could not impact me in my current stage of life because I am no longer at the stage of my life where I would be an infant and able to use the blood that is saved. Humanity should reconsider re-designing life due to the fact that much of what we are researching os about trying to change the way we are. We need to be careful about what we do about the future, until then we will have to see what happens.

Ivan: 

Cord blood banking is moral and immoral in several ways. It is immoral because it is unlikely that an average Joe will need a stem cell transplant, and if that Joe happens to get sick, but with a genetic defect causing ailment, it can just be false hope. It is moral because it is the possibility of helping treat certain ailments with stem cells in the blood. It could impact me, but unlikely, since stem cell transplants are uncommon. Humans should always consider re-designing life, but only to a standard where the basis is still based on chance and trusting in nature to do her job. There is a line that can’t be crossed, but where that line is, we can find out latter.

APA Citations

Davidson, T. (2011). Umbilical cord blood banking. In L. J. Fundukian (Ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (4th ed.). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SCIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SCIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CDU2601001829&source=Bookmark&u=las89135&jsid=a742dd9e8421ff5db9ac2d2d08909cc2 (1)

Rubin, R. (2005, July 13). Top doctors cast doubt on wisdom of private 'banks'. USA Today, p. 02A. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SCIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=News&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SCIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA133995578&source=Bookmark&u=las89135&jsid=2bb8af2a3fdaee842ef6706382b4c984 (2)

Odle, T. G., & Oberleitner, M. G. (2011). Stem cell transplantation. In L. J. Fundukian (Ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (4th ed.). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SCIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SCIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CDU2601001819&source=Bookmark&u=las89135&jsid=dd3c70a196c2d623e3703d27430eeec0 (3)

Griffin, Morgan (n.d.) Banking Your Babies Cord Blood. Retrieved on February 18th, 2015 from (4) http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/features/banking-your-babys-cord-blood?page=4