Last week TCC staff members visited the Texas Cord Blood Bank in San Antonio. Specially approved by the Texas legislature, the Texas Cord Blood Bank allows families to donate their infant's cord blood at no cost to the family.

Cord blood, which is donated following the birth of a healthy baby, is rich in blood-making cells which can be used, like bone marrow transplants, to treat children and adults with certain cancers and other fatal blood disorders. Diseases currently treated with cord blood include aplastic anemia, lymphoma, genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia, leukemia, and other blood cancers.

There are many benefits to treating patients with cord blood cells. Because cord blood immune cells are less mature, they are more easily accepted by a patient when used in transplantation. As a result, patients with a less-than-perfect match can now be treated. In addition, there are fewer immune complications after transplantation and since cord blood is banked and ready to use, it is immediately available when a patient needs it.

The Texas Cord Blood Bank partners with the National Marrow Donor program to help physicians find matches for their patients, and has the bank has already made 8 matches.

Sometimes it is wrongly said that the Catholic Church opposes stem cell research. In fact, the Church supports ethically responsible stem cell research, while opposing any research that exploits or destroys human embryos. Because the Church opposes deliberately destroying innocent human life at any stage, for research or any other purpose, it opposes embryonic stem cell research as currently conducted. However, when scientists proposed avenues for possibly obtaining embryonic stem cells or their pluripotent equivalent without creating or harming embryos, Catholic leaders were among the first to welcome this idea.

The Catholic Church has long supported research using stem cells from adult tissue and umbilical cord blood, which poses no moral problem. Catholic institutions at times have taken the lead in promoting such constructive research, which is already providing cures and treatments for suffering patients. For more information on Stem cells, click here.