Banking cord blood, yes or no?

For 99.9999% of the populace: idiotic, little better than a legal scam.

Allogeneic cord banks OTOH are a good idea. I had a chance to see an avant-garde one up close in the 1990's when I was a blood bank fellow in NY.

 

I'd say it's a legitimate long shot. The real question is where medical science will be in 30-80+ years when that blood might be used. Right now, there are many problems with using someone else's cells, be they an organ, blood, or whatever. Using your own blood avoids many rejection and compatibility problems, but they may not be problems in 50 years.

Dr. David Steenblock is currently doing stem cell transfers from an individual's bone marrow to whatever needs them, for example knee or hip joints. He says that the younger the person, the more effective the treatment is. Well, young people don't need the therapy anywhere near as much as older people. Using your own cord blood (or bone marrow cells) that was collected at birth would seem to offer a real treatment advantage.

So I like the potential, but very few people have the money required to even take the long shot. An alternative potential is growing more stem cells in old age, a technical problem that I expect to be overcome in the near future. So using umbilical cord cells may be moot by the time you'd actually need them.

Expensive? Yes. Long shot? Yes. Scam? I don't think so. The biggest unknown is whether or not a two year old company is going to still be in business 50 years from now. The technology has a better chance at working than the long term prospects for any new venture storage company.