Stem cells obtained from early-stage human embryos are pluripotent, meaning they can give rise to every cell type in the human body, but to obtain them requires the destruction of the embryo, which the Catholic Church rightly condemns. Although in vitro fertilization (which is also contrary to Church teaching) has sadly led to a huge and growing “reserve” of frozen human embryos, the moral issues involved in the use of embryonic stem cells, combined with the difficulty in securing funding for research in countries such as the United States, have resulted in an emphasis on finding alternatives to research that requires the destruction of these tiny human beings. Examples of these alternatives include stem cells derived from adult tissues, amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord blood. Adult human cells can also be induced to take on a pluripotent identity through the manipulation of gene expression, allowing researchers to achieve many of the benefits of embryonic stem cells without having to destroy embryos to obtain them. This latter process of creating induced pluripotent stem cells is an especially exciting area of study.
Collecting umbilical cord blood at birth has 1) no risk to the mother, 2) no risk to the child, and 3) no ethical or religious controversy as the umbilical cord is discarded. I think that is all that needs to be said other than SAVING BABY'S CORD BLOOD SAVES LIVES!!!!!
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