Some Claim Benefits of Cord Blood Banking Overstated
A June 2005 article in the San Francisco Chronicle asks "Is it Worth Banking Your Baby's Cord Blood."
Although the article does spend considerable space discussing the benefits of cord blood banking, it is critical of the cord blood industry. It criticizes what it terms "marketing omissions," stating:
"But what generally isn't clear from the private banks' ubiquitous marketing materials to pregnant women -- in magazines, maternity stores, doctors' offices, direct mail and on the Internet -- is that genetic diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, can't be treated with a child's own cord blood because it already contains the disease."
The article also provides this perspective:
"'Most of the people in the hematology community think they're a bunch of snake-oil salesmen in these private companies,' said Dr. Bertram Lubin, a blood specialist and president of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. The hospital has the nation's only program that exclusively banks newborn cord blood, for free, for a sick sibling."
The article, overall, is very critical of the industry discussing the growth of blood cord banking economically while concentrating upon possible marketing overstatements and sales techniques that may be considered inappropriate. The article also spends a great deal of time focusing on the medical limitations of umbilical cord blood.
You can read the piece here.
Although the article does spend considerable space discussing the benefits of cord blood banking, it is critical of the cord blood industry. It criticizes what it terms "marketing omissions," stating:
"But what generally isn't clear from the private banks' ubiquitous marketing materials to pregnant women -- in magazines, maternity stores, doctors' offices, direct mail and on the Internet -- is that genetic diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, can't be treated with a child's own cord blood because it already contains the disease."
The article also provides this perspective:
"'Most of the people in the hematology community think they're a bunch of snake-oil salesmen in these private companies,' said Dr. Bertram Lubin, a blood specialist and president of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. The hospital has the nation's only program that exclusively banks newborn cord blood, for free, for a sick sibling."
The article, overall, is very critical of the industry discussing the growth of blood cord banking economically while concentrating upon possible marketing overstatements and sales techniques that may be considered inappropriate. The article also spends a great deal of time focusing on the medical limitations of umbilical cord blood.
You can read the piece here.
posted by Resident Expert @ 9/27/2005 01:32:00 PM
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