When I saw this "science" item ... it reminded me of an Eleventh Hour story line... which in turn reminded me of ...

Many mammals have virtually no noticeable belly button.
We humans, however, are left with an umbilical scar that is not only obvious but which varies dramatically. Some are seen as beautiful. Others are deemed ugly.
Aki Sinkkonen at the University of Helsinki in Finland thinks the belly button, aka the umbilicus, serves a greater purpose than mere cosmetics: It may be an indicator of mating potential in fertile women.

Hood discovers that the cord blood was replaced with pig blood so that the theft would go unnoticed: Eleventh Hour "Last Injection" Episode 12

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/eleventh_hour/video/video.php?cid=826490006&pid=9oFckaCciFdaMyOpEtGZhuSn_mEO2Gsp&category=editorial&play=true

Cord blood
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Umbilical cord blood is up to 180mL of blood from a newborn baby that is returned to the neonatal circulation if the umbilical cord is not prematurely clamped. In some obstetric and midwifery practices, physiological extended-delayed cord clamping protocol, as well as water birth, allows for the cord blood to pulse into the neonate for 5-20 minutes after delivery. If the umbilical cord is not clamped, a physiological clamping occurs upon interaction with cold air, when the internal gelatinous substance, called Wharton's jelly, swells around the umbilical artery and veins.

... We are talking about your own stem cells.

... Your own blood at birth.

... And some hospitals are selling it to cover their own costs!

... $1,000 a cord. Here. Less in India, China and Brazil.


While there is general support in the medical community for public banking of cord blood, the question of private banking has raised objections from many governments and nonprofit organizations. The controversy centers on varying assessments of the current and future likelihood of successful uses of the stored blood.

In March 2008, a paper was published by Nietfeld et al.[4] in the journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation which computed the lifetime probability (up to age 70) that an individual in the US would undergo a stem cell transplant. The likelihood of an autologous transplant using your own stem cells is 1 in 435, the likelihood of an allogeneic transplant from a matched donor (such as a sibling) is 1 in 400, and the net likelihood of any type of stem cell transplant is 1 in 217.
The National Marrow Donor Program estimates that by the year 2015, there will be 10,000 cord blood transplants world-wide per year using publicly banked cord blood. It is therefore vitally important to build public repositories of cord blood donations throughout the world. In the United States, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services is responsible for funding national programs to register marrow donors and bank cord blood donations.[5]
The European Union Group on Ethics (EGE) has issued Opinion No.19 [6] titled Ethical Aspects of Umbilical Cord Blood Banking. The EGE concluded that "[t]he legitimacy of commercial cord blood banks for autologous use should be questioned as they sell a service, which has presently, no real use regarding therapeutic options. Thus they promise more than they can deliver. The activities of such banks raise serious ethical criticisms."[6] However, in the final section 1.27 of their Opinion, the EGE admits that: "if in the future regenerative medicine developed in such a way that using autologous stem cells became possible, then the fact to have one's own cord blood being stored at birth could increase the chance of having access to new therapies."[6]