Jan 26 2007
Great Stem Cell Plan From Branson
Richard Branson is a business genius. He has stepped right into the controversial stem cell debate and come up with a superb idea:
Sir Richard Branson will launch his most controversial business to date as he moves into stem-cell storage and the biotech sector, The Times has learnt.
The Virgin-branded company will be launched next Thursday and is expected to offer parents the chance to put the umbilical blood of their newborn children into cold storage. Scientists believe that future advances in medical technology will use stem cells to cure diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
No promises of course, just the hope someday they may be useful. I wish we had had the chance with our four kids. If it is reasonably priced it is an excellent insurance policy. Better than killing young humans.
It’s not Branson’s idea. A Google search indicates that cord-blood storage centers (for exactly this sort of thing) have been around for a long time. At least one of these companies has advertised on TV for three or four years.
As I think I’ve mentioned before, my youngest grandson, who will be 6 in a couple months, was born with defective kidneys. When he was 20 months old, he received a transplant of one of his dad’s kidneys.
My daughter and son-in-law have tried to stay at the forefront of the stem cell debate because, at some point, my grandson will likely have to replace that kidney again, and SCR offers the best potential promise for my grandson to someday grow his own replacement kidney. We had a long discussion about it when we visited them this last Christmas, and I asked them if they had stored any of his cord blood at the time he was born. Sadly, it wasn’t even an option at the time. How much has changed in the last 6 years.
I got in a heated discussion about SCR on another blog recently, and one of the Lefties in the discussion suggested that the rest of the world was going to pass us by in ESCR because of Bush’s refusal to allow expanded Federal funding. Of course I asked the logical question, “if ESCR is so promising, what about private funding?” The Lefties didn’t have a good response to that because private funding is virtually nonexistent. Even worldwide, the lion’s share of ESCR funding is by governments, not individuals, foundations or venture capitalists. There’s a message there somewhere.
I do’nt know. This sounds like a guy trying to make a buck off the vulnerabilities of new parents.. I hope I am wrong.
hello,
this is my first post, thanks for letting me contribute.
Good friends of mine just had a bouncing baby boy on Jan 15th.
They were offered the option of saving the umbilical cord blood for the sum of $2,000.00. They had no idea of this in advance and could not afford it, but if it were widely known you could save that money in 9 months or even longer if you planned for it.
Champiod,
Tell your friends congrats. Wow, that is a lot. It would be better to work out a payment plan!
I, too, think this is a great idea, and so what if Branson makes a few bucks off it. Making some $ drives a lot of creative thinking, and is reason for much of the successes of America & capitalistic nations. Plus, private industry usually does things better & cheaper than govts ever could.
One other point – just as the reporting on ESCR is confusing or simply false (of course, over-hyped) so too is the reporting on this story. Thge reporters simply don’t understand the reality of ESCR and the cloning debate, and how core blood SCR is much different and promising.