Max
04-30-2003, 11:20 AM
Hungarian Woman Threatens Suit Over Stem Cell Bank
April 30, 2003 07:53:16 AM PST, Reuters
A Hungarian woman says she is planning to take legal action so she can store stem cells from the umbilical cord of her soon-to-be born baby.
Transplants of stem cells -- immature cells that can mature into different types of cells -- from umbilical cord blood have been used successfully to treat a variety of blood diseases, mainly leukemias.
Based on the success of these treatments, a number of companies have set up cord blood "banks," in which blood samples are collected and stored for a fee.
Although the woman has a contract to store the cells in a Belgian stem cell bank, a recent statement by the Medical Research Council (ETT) deemed such acts illegal in Hungary. Human tissue and organs cannot be taken out of the country legally.
In Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary is the only country besides Romania and the Ukraine that doesn't have its own stem cell bank.
Until recently, parents wishing to store the stem cells of their children could contract with Sejtbank Kft, the local representative of Swiss-registered Cryo-Cell.
The company had received instructions from 900 Hungarian women to store the blood taken from the umbilical cord of their newborns in Belgium for 20 years, for a fee of Ft 296,000 ($1315).
But after the ETT's statement, Sejtbank closed shop in Hungary. This means there are no research groups or companies in the country that hold a permit to bank stem cells.
The lawsuit planned by the woman, who lives in Sarbogard, 50 kilometers south of Budapest, raises a number of questions.
First, it isn't clear whether stem cells that have been transported abroad can be re-used in Hungary. Local transplantation centers can only use materials of precisely documented origin and storage conditions.
It is also unclear who would be the subject of such a lawsuit.
A 10-member consortium made up of local organ-transplant centers and the National Pharmaceutical Center is also preparing to launch the country's first stem cell bank.
In the U.S., an expert panel of the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded in 1999 there is not enough evidence to support the routine harvesting and storage of umbilical cord blood for individual use.
The panel expressed concern that "families may be vulnerable to emotional marketing (from private blood banks)." They point out that the vast majority of children will never require the use of stored cord blood.
Current estimates place the chances of a child needing to use his or her own cord blood sample at somewhere between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 200,000.
On the other hand, the panel encouraged parents to donate cord blood "at no cost" to national stem cell banks, in much the same that organs are donated to help strangers in need.
April 30, 2003 07:53:16 AM PST, Reuters
A Hungarian woman says she is planning to take legal action so she can store stem cells from the umbilical cord of her soon-to-be born baby.
Transplants of stem cells -- immature cells that can mature into different types of cells -- from umbilical cord blood have been used successfully to treat a variety of blood diseases, mainly leukemias.
Based on the success of these treatments, a number of companies have set up cord blood "banks," in which blood samples are collected and stored for a fee.
Although the woman has a contract to store the cells in a Belgian stem cell bank, a recent statement by the Medical Research Council (ETT) deemed such acts illegal in Hungary. Human tissue and organs cannot be taken out of the country legally.
In Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary is the only country besides Romania and the Ukraine that doesn't have its own stem cell bank.
Until recently, parents wishing to store the stem cells of their children could contract with Sejtbank Kft, the local representative of Swiss-registered Cryo-Cell.
The company had received instructions from 900 Hungarian women to store the blood taken from the umbilical cord of their newborns in Belgium for 20 years, for a fee of Ft 296,000 ($1315).
But after the ETT's statement, Sejtbank closed shop in Hungary. This means there are no research groups or companies in the country that hold a permit to bank stem cells.
The lawsuit planned by the woman, who lives in Sarbogard, 50 kilometers south of Budapest, raises a number of questions.
First, it isn't clear whether stem cells that have been transported abroad can be re-used in Hungary. Local transplantation centers can only use materials of precisely documented origin and storage conditions.
It is also unclear who would be the subject of such a lawsuit.
A 10-member consortium made up of local organ-transplant centers and the National Pharmaceutical Center is also preparing to launch the country's first stem cell bank.
In the U.S., an expert panel of the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded in 1999 there is not enough evidence to support the routine harvesting and storage of umbilical cord blood for individual use.
The panel expressed concern that "families may be vulnerable to emotional marketing (from private blood banks)." They point out that the vast majority of children will never require the use of stored cord blood.
Current estimates place the chances of a child needing to use his or her own cord blood sample at somewhere between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 200,000.
On the other hand, the panel encouraged parents to donate cord blood "at no cost" to national stem cell banks, in much the same that organs are donated to help strangers in need.