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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 2096 ..
MS DUNDAS
(10.04): I will take a little bit more time to put my thoughts on the record. The ACT Democrats will now be supporting this motion as it is amended. In Australia each year around 50 children diagnosed with cancer cannot find a suitable donor for a bone marrow transplant, and the research and use relating to umbilical cords can play an important role in fixing this problem.The blood in a baby's umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells-in effect, the building blocks of a human immune system. Cord blood is used to treat a range of life-threatening illnesses, particularly when a suitable bone marrow donor cannot be found. The placenta, the umbilical cord and the blood in them have no function after the baby is born and are normally discarded. Therefore, collecting the cord blood after a baby is born and after the cord is cut does not affect the mother or the baby in any way. Once this valuable cord blood is collected, it can be taken to the laboratory for freezing and storage until it is needed for a life-saving transplant.
I understand that in 1995 the Australian Cord Blood Bank was established at the Sydney Childrens Hospital and forms part of a national network of cord blood banks in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It collects and banks cord blood from voluntary donors anonymously for use by patients-Australian or overseas-needing a stem cell transplant.
Donating mothers need to give informed consent and agree to donate some blood for infection screening around the time of delivery and six months later. The mother also has to provide a medical history to screen for infection and risk of hepatitis, syphilis and HIV and for the potential to transmit genetic disorders. Mothers with a history of infection or genetic blood disorders are therefore excluded from donating blood. The baby's health is also monitored to ensure no transmission of genetic disorders. All the information provided is kept confidential but may be made available for the doctoring of the transplant in an anonymous way.
I understand that, in the 2001-02 federal budget, the Commonwealth government funded work with the states and territories to establish a national core blood banking network. This is the heart of what we are getting at today. Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells to treat life-threatening cancers, such as leukaemia. Mothers are asked to donate the umbilical cord after birth, and a national database helps find compatible donations for patients. At the time it was planned, it was planned to hold 22,000 cord blood units, including 2,000 from indigenous mothers.
The original motion called on the government to investigate the feasibility of setting up a similar cord bank, specifically in the ACT. I thought that there would have been merit in that so that we could investigate how the ACT could contribute more to the national cord blood collection network and allow mothers in the ACT who wish to donate to do so.
In the meantime, we have had a very helpful debate about this issue. Hopefully, it will make mothers aware both that they have a vital source of cells that they should be able to donate to help others around the world and that we are part of a national network of cord blood collection. Maybe the concerns that have been raised in this debate can be addressed without doing a full feasibility study of whether we need our own bank here. The needs of mothers wishing to donate can be addressed, and we can make sure that we are still able to access these cells, as they become necessary for children in the ACT.
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