Will Assembly Bill 52 Pass in CA Allowing Free Storage of Cord Blood?

Usually what happens when you have a baby, the cord blood from the umbilical cord attached to the placenta is destroyed. Think of all the potential stem cells that could save your life at any age from your own cord blood, if your parents put it in storage for you for your lifetime. Would you do that for your child or other people's children? You don't have to be related to any recipient or have the same DNA type or similar genomes, just be a match regarding the blood. This would help people of mixed ethnic or diverse ancestries.

Basically, the new Assembly Bill 52, if passed, would set up a method to let parents donate cord blood at no cost to the family. The cord blood would be available to you, your family, and anyone else seeking matches. If the bill passes, instead, there would only be a two dollar increase for certified birth certificates, which now cost $14 in Sacramento. The collection of the cord blood would no longer be charged to you.

Of course, it's worth it if you need a match. It also helps people of diverse ethnic backgrounds find a match for saving the lives of people suffering from 70 different blood-related diseases. The ethnic diversity from the potential wide number of people donating cord blood when they give birth could help to find matches for sick infants, children, and older adults or anyone else who needs the cord blood. Sacramento has one of the largest populations of people of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

How do you find a match for all of them or those with mixed ethnic backgrounds? That's another way cord blood can help save lives. Is it worth the $2 increase in the cost of sending away for a certified birth certificate? Yes. Think of cord blood storage as a bank you may need to visit one day or someone else may need to make that visit. It's a way of immortalizing your infant's cord blood to help any member of your family who is a match or any stranger who could be a match regarding blood.

The UC Davis Institute of Regenerative Cures is interested the life-saving possibilities if everyone who gives birth could have the cord blood from the umbilical cord attached to the placenta stored to help members of Sacramento's diverse ethnic populations.

If you're having a baby, save the cord blood. It can be used to fight blood diseases even when you're an adult in your older years. Cord blood can fight 70 potentially lethal blood diseases. See the Sacramento Bee article by Susan Ferriss, "Bill hopes to save precious cord blood - Capitol and California," published September 17, 2010 in the 'health' section of this daily newspaper. See the Sept. 17, 2010 Sacramento Bee article online, "Bill to spur collection of life-saving umbilical cord blood awaits action by Schwarzenegger." Check out Assembly Bill 52. See, AB 52 (Portantino): Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program.

The cord blood might be able to be used to help your baby in your infant's childhood or when the individual grows up, even into old age. The big problem is the expense of storing it. No, you can't bring home your placenta and freeze it at home. It must be stored at specific temperatures. And storage can run you up to $2,000 for the procedure and also a rent of $100 per year just to store the small amount of cord blood extracted from the placenta at the time your baby is born. It's expensive for most families.

The new bill might be of help to parents soon to have a child. A bill on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk aims to collect a lot of people's cord blood. If you don't use it throughout the lifetime of your child, that cord blood also could help other people who match genetically. You don't have to be related to the donor.

Collection of the cord blood is done after you expel the placenta when you give birth. It's not opposed by anti-abortion groups. Your baby already is born, and usually the placenta gets destroyed. But if the blood is taken through the umbilical cord that's attached to the placenta, that blood might save another person's life, including the life of a child you've never met.