Hi all, sorry for my long absence. Seldom come in lah.
Ok RE: PUBLIC CORD BANK vs PTE CORD BANK
I had a lengthy conversation with the Singapore Cord Blood Bank donor officer, and this is what she confirmed
(1) once you donate to SCBB, you no longer have proprietary rights over it. It can be utilised by anyone in Singapore, or even from the rest of the world, should there be a match and a transplant using your BB's cord blood be required.
(2) SCBB's cord blood (as well as it's international shared pool) is available for the public. IF anyone needs to tap into this massive pool (the bigger the pool the higher the chances of a match or even more matches of varying degrees of suitability), the fee is SGD26k. The fee is ONLY waived if it's the same donor (e.g your BB) using its own donated CB. This is however extremely unlikely for 2 reasons - (a) BB's own CB is unlikely to be useful to itself becos whatever is causing BB to fall sick in its later years is probably already present/missing in the CB, so no use. (b) it is also possible that BB's CB has already been used up by someone else.
(3) This means that if mommy, or the (BB's) sibling need to used the donated CB, they would also need to pay $26k. The chances of a blood relation finding a useful match is much higher than that of the donor using its own CB. Having said that, she said that just because it is a match doesn't mean that you will definitely be using it for transplant. What transplant physicians do is, they will use a BEST match, to minimise risk of rejection. So let's say one day if your no. 2 falls sick, and found that your No. 1's CB is a match at a rating of 3/6, and another CB from the bank at a rating of 5/6, the transplant physician will of course recommend that you use the one with a higher rating of suitability. So you will still need to pay SD26k.
(3) there is no cost to donate to SCBB
(4) you need to arrange an appointment with them from 32 weeks onwards, not earlier. They can meet you together with your gynae at the clinic, or at their office itself. This meeting is to fill out forms, answer questions about medical history and sign on consent forms. Both Father and Mother must be present.
(5) note that because it is a public bank, there is a much higher duty of care and they are extremely strict with the CB selection. They have to make sure that it is a good sample. In other words, those who fall short of their criteria (posted on their website) will not be accepted.
Hope I'm not confusing anyone.
People asked me to buy that and i just brought it without looking at it much.
