Umbilical Cord Blood Banking in Canada: Socio-Ethical and Legal Issues‪.‬

Promising discoveries about the lifesaving attributes of umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells have led to the emergence of public and private cord blood banks throughout Canada. UCB cells are currently used in the treatment of a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases and for research purposes. (1) There is also much talk of their potential use for the treatment of a broad range of degenerative, hereditary, post-traumatic and central nervous system related conditions. (2) The primary purpose of public UCB banks is to create an inventory of UCB units for unrelated allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants. The UCB is donated to the bank and the units are made available to suitably matched recipients regionally, nationally or internationally. In contrast, private banks allow parents to store their newborn's cord blood for autologous (use by donor) or familial use. Thus, for a fee, the UCB is stored as a form of 'insurance' in case the child or a matched family member should have a need for it in the future. In Canada, two public banks and at least nine private banks have been established to date. (3)