These days everyone is talking about stem cell research and the miracles of modern medicine trumping the moralists and their Pro Life ethical beliefs.
Embryonic stem cell research is very controversial. On March 9th, 2009 when US President Barack Obama reversed the federal opposition to Stem Cell research, he overturned an order imposed by former President Bush, and with the stroke of a pen he cleared the financial and legal limits that had been placed on the science.
But What about Cord Blood?
But I have to wonder why has science ignored 'adult stem cells' found in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies? This fluid, and the stems cells therein hold a tremendous potential for miracles, and no controversy. Yet they are ignored? 
Private cord blood banks do not store embryonic stem cells. Their business is to preserve the approx180mL of blood that's recovered from a newborn baby's umbilical cord immediately after birth. This fluid would otherwise be returned to the child via neonatal circulation, or discarded with afterbirth material.
The recovery procedure takes about four minutes and does not really affect the mother or her newborn baby, nor does it interfere with the process of giving birth. Therefore, cord blood collection poses no harmful risks.
In the summer of 2005, a Canadian scientist named
Peter Zandstra was working in a laboratory at the
University of Toronto where he developed a method to increase the yield of cord blood stem cells to enable their use in treating adults as well as children. The potential for new therapies and treatments is huge, so much is possible with adult stem cells harvested from cord blood.
It's safe to say, each newborn baby's cord blood could hold the secret to so many of life's mysteries, and end so much pain and suffering without any negative moral implications. Its a shame that science isn't spending more time and money here.
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