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Banking on Your Future
Oct. 4, 2005
Expectant parents are bombarded with all sorts of information these days. Certainly we know an awful lot more about pregnancy, health care and how to look after yourself and your baby. But how do you sort it all out: the serious from the frivolous, the common sense from the cutting-edge science? Tonight we'll take a look at a new advancement in science on which expectant parents are being asked to decide.
"Nightline" Senior Producer Madhulika Sikka writes:
When I was pregnant with my first child, I remember being overwhelmed by fear, as if I were the first woman in the world to have a baby – I had to have everything just so, and if I messed up on just one thing then we were doomed. I was going to do absolutely everything right for my new baby; the health and welfare of that child was paramount, of course. No one would be able to accuse me of being a negligent mother. I did all the tests I was supposed to do and studied all the leaflets they handed out to me about the possibility of developing diabetes during pregnancy, about jaundice in a newborn, about postpartum depression, about the benefits of breastfeeding.
Tucked into that packet of information was a leaflet about storing the blood from my child's umbilical cord. It was billed as an insurance policy; cord blood has stem cells that may be useful in treating certain diseases, so what would make more sense than storing cord blood that would be a perfect match just in case my child should need it in the future? It was a relatively new phenomenon, and I don't remember paying much attention to it, except I do remember that it cost a couple thousand dollars initially and then a couple hundred dollars a year in perpetuity. What I didn't know was that the cord blood might also be useful to other potential patients (just like blood banks or bone marrow).
Well, storing cord blood is a growing phenomenon – private cord blood banks across the country are providing storage for thousands of parents – and there are a lot of parents out there who think they will be letting their children down if they don't participate. The question is, how useful are they? And if storing cord blood is a useful thing to do, should there be more public cord blood banks accessible to everyone, including those who might not be able to afford private banks? We'll take a look at the issue tonight. We'll examine the science and the social implications of this new trend in medicine. Is it an example of a scientific breakthrough vital to all, or an example of 'boutique medicine' dividing those with means from those without?
Ted Koppel anchors. We hope you'll join us.
Madhulika Sikka and the "Nightline" staff Senior Producer ABC News Washington Bureau
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