The importance of banking cord blood stem cells is increasingly recognized in federal, state and local government bodies as a viable treatment for many common diseases. (View the diseases currently treated with stem cell transplants). This Connecticut state mandate will allow for the continued education regarding cord blood stem cell banking and the current and potential usefulness of stem cells in modern medicine. Read the excerpt below.

Sec. 21. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2009) A physician or other health care provider who provides health care services to a pregnant woman during the last trimester of her pregnancy, which health care services are directly related to her pregnancy, shall provide the woman with timely, relevant and appropriate information sufficient to allow her to make an informed and voluntary choice regarding options to bank or donate umbilical cord blood following the delivery of a newborn child.

Read the Entire CT Department of Public Health Licensing Statutes

More states add cord blood mandates

3 States in 3 Weeks: Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee Legislate Cord Blood Education

In a recent post, we reported that Virginia passed the Cord Blood Education Bill. Just three short weeks later, two additional states – Ohio and Tennessee – have passed very similar legislation.

The growing number of states to enact cord blood education legislation stems from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2004 report to Congress. That report highlighted the need to help all expectant parents make an informed choice prior to labor and delivery about the storage or disposal of their newborn’s cord blood stem cells.

The hope is that these new laws will do just that, specifically by:

• Encouraging prenatal care providers to educate expectant parents about their cord blood banking options early enough in pregnancy so that they can make an informed decision about whether to privately bank their child’s newborn stem cells or donate them to a public bank..
• Requiring the state’s Department of Health to publish information on its website about cord blood stem cells and parents’ options for preserving them.
  
  Now a total of 20 states – representing 68% of the U.S. population – have legislation in place endorsing education on cord blood stem cells and the private and public cord blood banking options available to parents.