Irish parents ‘left behind’ by failing to store umbilical cord stem cells

IRISH maternity hospitals need to soften their opposition to the collection and preservation of stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborns, according to one of the country’s leading stem cell researchers.

Another researcher said Irish parents “had been left behind” by failing to preserve umbilical cord stem cells.

Professor Frank Barry of NUI Galway’s Regenerative Medicine Institute has said there is sufficient scientific evidence to prove that umbilical cord blood stem cells can be a potentially powerful weapon in the fight against childhood illnesses.