Umbilical Cord Blood Banks Do Not Pay Interest

Finally someone has done it: confronted the preposterous fees charged for umbilical cord blood banking at birth. Researchers Nick Fisk and Irene Roberts of Imperial College London have identified the problem: the procedure is overpriced, not anywhere near as useful as is claimed by companies who sell the procedure, and poorly studied:

They said it was unlikely the blood would ever be used and all the applications for non-blood diseases, such as the regeneration of heart muscle, were speculative.

Future Health Technologies, a private bank in Nottingham, estimates that the chances of using the blood over a typical storage period of 20 years are four in 10,000. Prof Fisk said; "The probability of needing an autologous transplant is less than one in 20,000, although commercial providers quote higher figures." He said the European Group on Ethics in Science (EGE), had reported serious ethical concerns about commercial banks and questioned their legitimacy for selling a service of "no real use".