Health: The Cord Blood Debate

Zoe Fintz is a perfectly healthy little girl. But her parents aren't taking any chances. Compelled by a pamphlet in their doctor's office, they decided to spend $1,300 to store Zoe's umbilical-cord blood, banking its precious stem cells for potentially lifesaving medical use in the future. Did they make the right choice? So far, there have been only 2,500 cord-blood transplants worldwide. Still, stem cells--the building blocks for our blood--can be used to treat more than 70 diseases, and cord blood is only slightly less medically valuable.

Scientists don't know if the blood's viability decreases over time. But in some cases banking it may be prudent. Anyone with a family history of blood disease or mixed-ethnicity parents might consider it, since it'll be harder to find genetic matches at public bone-marrow banks.