Cells for Life

Description

Cells for Life is a company that specializes in the extraction and storage of umbilical cord blood, which is the blood that is inside the umbilical cord of as newborn baby. They have four offices across the country in Toronto, Markham, Calgary and Montreal. The process that they specialize in is known as cord blood banking, and it is something more and more parents are signing up for when they are expecting a child. The company was started in 1997 by several medical professionals and has been organized and managed by a series of registered nurses, doctors and scientists. There have been over 36,000 units of cord blood collected since the company started in 1997, and that number continues to grow.
The reason that cord blood banking exists is because cord blood contains valuable stem cells that are able to replicate any cells in the human body. This means, if someone contracts a serious blood-related disease at any point in their lives, doctors can use those stored cells to help heal them and possibly even reverse the condition. The scientists that are part of Cells for Life conduct continuous research into the process and the possibilities, so new uses for this blood can be discovered and more people can be helped or even saved in the future. Cells for Life has both a private and public storage facility that parents may use. The private facility includes a fee so that the blood is reserved specifically for the child it was extracted from. With public cord blood storage, it isn’t guaranteed that the cord blood that is being stored will be used for the person in question, but someone else may end up benefiting from it. There has been controversy surrounding stem cells in the past, but that controversy always had to do with embryonic stem cells. This means a human embryo was created for the express purpose of using the stem cells. With cord blood banking, that umbilical cord is from a baby that has already been born and it will literally be thrown in the trash whether the blood is taken out or not. There is no discomfort to the child or mother, as the blood is extracted using a fine needle. Just as mother and child don’t feel the cord being cut, they can’t feel the needle. There will continue to be many developments in this new field of science in the future, and Cells for Life will likely be there leading the way.