3 Types of Cord Blood Banks

	There are three types of cord blood banks. These types are: non-profit public cord blood bank for-profit public cord blood bank private bank
Each type of bank has its various advantages and disadvantages, costs and other features.

This is for cord blood donation and, as a result, the public domain owns it - not a company. The cord blood that is stored in a non-profit bank has been donated and is therefore not owned by the parents who gave it, but rather by the bank. The blood is stored for free as it is placed on a donor registry, the NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program) that is a registry of donors that can be accessed by medical professionals for use in transplants or other research.

For-profit public banks at first glance look like traditional non-profit blood banks, because they will accept your donation for free. In order to make a profit, the bank sells the cord blood for cord blood research. There is a great deal of stem cells research, and this makes cord blood very desirable to laboratories. The practice of selling this freely donated blood is legal in the United States, although it isn't legal in many European countries.

There are several ethical issues with a for-profit public cord blood bank. This option appeals to parents by presenting statistics on the great need of patients for cord blood. In fact, these donations are sold to laboratories within a matter of weeks. Also, parents may be led to believe that their cord blood can be taken out for their own use. The probability that this will happen is very small.

Lastly, for-profit public banks also pose a serious ethical concern to parents in that they may not feel comfortable donating their child's stem cells to a corporation that will attempt to use them to make a profit for their investors.

A private bank is what it sounds like; private and not state owned. A private bank charges parents to store their child's cord blood after birth for a fee anywhere between $300 and $1,835, depending on which bank you store the blood at.

Storing cord blood this way means that the blood is solely owned by the parents and is not used for cord blood research or put on a registry and is therefore available in the future if the child, or a relative, requires a transplant of any sort.

When looking into cord blood banking, it is important to know exactly what you want. First find out what each of the bank's policies are on the following questions:

• collection of UCB
• shipping & handling
• laboratory testing
• accreditation
• cord blood preservation and processing
• cord blood storage facility
• company stability
• consumer rights
• price protection