Legislation helps umbilical-cord blood banking

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Senate last week approved legislation to make it easier for patients to donate or store potentially life-saving cord blood.
Cord blood is collected from the umbilical cord after it has been detached from a newborn baby, and the blood is often utilized as a source of stem cells in transplantation cases. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Leo R. Blais, R-Coventry, and filed at the request of Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts, would require hospitals and other obstetrical facilities and professionals to inform their patients of the option of donating or storing umbilical cord blood in umbilical cord blood banks.
“Banking cord blood saves lives,” Blais said in a news release. “It is important to educate expectant families about this opportunity, and I am pleased my colleagues in the Senate agree with me.”
Stem cells retrieved from cord blood can be used to treat a variety of diseases, including bone marrow failure disorders, hemoblobinopathies, histiocytic disorders, inherited immune system disorders, inherited metabolic disorders, leukemias, lymphomas, plasma cell disorders, osteoporosis and various cancers.
In 2005, Congress approved the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, recognizing the benefits of cord blood stem cell and authorizing expanded collection and maintenance of 150,000 new cord blood samples through the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program (formerly the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry).
The goal of the federal legislation was to expand the supply of donated (genetically unrelated) cord blood samples, but Congress and President George W. Bush both stressed the need to provide information to the donor about all “medically appropriate cord blood options.”
Twelve states, including Massachusetts, already have enacted legislation similar to Blais’ bill, according to the news release. A bill to the same effect has been held for further study by the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee, which will now review the Blais bill.