Does Branson Approach Avoid Common Concerns

Banking cord blood. Almost everyone agrees it makes sense to maintain umbilical cord blood and that there's no sense in wasting/discarding it. But what arrangement works best for storage? That's the contentious question.

While some (particularly in the for-profit sector) argue that individualized, private blood banking makes sense, others (often in the public health sphere) maintain that a national or international donation-fed cord blood bank is a better solution.

Richard Branson and the Virgin Stem Cell Bank may have a solution. The rebel billionaire's plan calls for collected umbilical cord blood to be split into two units. One will be retained under a private banking plan for those sold on the idea. The other half will be donated to appropriate national cord blood facilities.

Branson's bank may or may not succeed, but the underlying idea of providing a service to those able and willing to pay for it while simultaneously feeding public cord blood banks does seem like an interesting compromise to a difficult difference of opinions.

You can read more about the Virgin Bank here.