Saving Blood, Saving Lives

Having a baby can inspire new parents to try the latest method for ensuring their child's health. Recently, that method has been storing the blood from newborn babies' umbilical cords (臍帶). Cord blood is collected immediately after a baby is born. The blood is valuable because it is rich in stem cells that can be used in treating diseases like childhood cancers and immune system disorders. Treatment of such diseases normally involves radiation that can be harmful to the patient. Stem cells, on the other hand, can easily turn into useful red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets (血小板), which restore the immune system and help patients become healthy again. Although stem cells can also be taken from other sources, cord blood stem cells are especially valuable because they are easily accepted into a patient's body,while other types of stem cells are often rejected. The potential for future uses of stem cells, such as the creation of entire organs, is another reason people are considering storing their baby's cord blood.

However, there are drawbacks. To begin with, storing cord blood is quite expensive. Second, the effort might be wasted since it's highly unlikely that a stem cell transplant will ever be needed. And third, if such a transplant were necessary, it's doubtful that the child's own cord blood would be better than that from another donor. Furthermore, even if a child's disease can be treated with cord blood, it may be likely that the child's own cord blood stem cells carry the same defect that caused the disease. For these reasons, doctors discourage private cord blood storage, but support the donation of cord blood to public blood banks. If a transplant were necessary, a likely match could be found in a public bank.

Storing a child's cord blood could possibly save his or her life someday. However, it could also turn out to be a waste of resources and money. Despite the drawbacks, many parents are choosing to spend money on cord blood storage, just in case.

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1.
Thought saving cord blood has to spend money, it is a good method to cure some disease. No matter who got the disease, we can research the public blood banks to find the adaptation.

2.
immune system disorders
plateets
stem cell
drawback
donor
umbilical cords

3.
involve
be harmful to
reject
on the other hand
restore
transplant
just in case

4.
When I was born, my parents didn't store my cord blood. If they know the benefit storing the cord blood in that time, I think they must do that. After reading the article, I think if I am a mother, I also choose storing the blood and donate to public blood banks. Even I have to pay the money. As soon as I think of it can help the person, it is worth.