According to Leroy C Edozien of the British Medical Journal, increasing numbers of women in maternity units across the United Kingdom are requesting doctors to collect and preserve their umbilical cord blood when delivering their babies to enable the women to privately store the umbilical cord stem cells for possible transfusions in the future. "Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells that can be used to treat patients with abnormal haematopoietic cell lines, childhood leukaemia, or metabolic diseases. Bone marrow is used for this purpose, but cord blood is cheaper and easier to obtain and less likely to trigger a harmful immune response or rejection in the recipient" (Edozien 2006). The NHS of Britain has been banking donated cord blood since 1996 in public banks operated by the National Blood Service that are voluntarily and anonymously donated to be used for general purposes in the larger population. However, commercial stem cell banks in Britain operate private banks for blood that is solely designated for the later use by that person or their close relations-in other words the new trend is to 'bank' personal umbilical cord blood intended for private use.
             This highlights an important ethical controversy that extends beyond umbilical cord blood banking and touches upon many issues raised by a national healthcare system. When everyone pays for everyone else's healthcare, the system demands more oversight about how taxpayer funds are used. Also, because resources are finite, often waitlists for routine and crucial procedures and rationing must be imposed upon the distribution of healthcare. Need and availability is supposed to be paramount in determining what care is required, rather than wealth.
             In the U.K. stem cell research is not as ethically controversial as it is in the U.S., except amongst a narrow circle of certain religious groups ("Embryology bill controversy," NHS Choices., 200...