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Comment by inglor_cz | Hacker News Reader

Cord blood is a good source of "your own" stem cells. We do not know what is going to be possible with such cells 20 or 30 years from now; possibly unimaginable things. I would save them if I had a child. Just in case.

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I get that it is very tempting. We all want to do anything that could help our kids. However, there are also an endless number of things people are selling to new parents that prey on that reflex. I truly don’t know the right thing to do here, but the position I mentioned earlier basically follows the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/140/5/e20172...

This was from 2017 and is basically the same as a reference I found from 2007. Has there been any actual changes in the state of the art since it was published?

Realistically speaking I think any breakthroughs that could make use of these stem cells could also create them.

If few other people save it, then nobody will develop treatments using it, since a treatment is only developed if it makes financial sense, and if <1% of potential patients for a treatment have cord blood banked, then a treatment that requires their personal cord blood will never be developed.

There are many companies doing this now and many (affluent) parents are saving it. I think your analysis misses the mark, even if there's a niche market, if it's comprised of people willing to spend lots of money, it can make sense as a business.

There are state led efforts to bank cord blood as well b/c of it's usefulness in some medical treatments and research.

https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2017-06-26/california-umbili...

Unfortunately, public donations are only an option in some locations.

https://health.ucdavis.edu/cord-blood/locations

Do you happen to know what's the maximum storage time? I remember reading that it was about 10 years only?

we did it. It depends on the freezer. at -80C they say it's for a lifetime with a caveat that the technology is only 23 years old so none can prove it's for a lifetime, yet

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