In France, it is forbidden to use cord blood for one’s child or for oneself. Although it is legal to conserve it, it can be conserved only for the benefit of others. Consequently, private umbilical cord blood banks are prohibited in France. However, in the event of recognised therapeutic necessity, French law allows the possibility of cord blood being donated for the child or the child’s brothers and sisters. This has to be properly justified at the time of collection. Besides, in 2016, some parents were able to obtain permission from the Regional Court of Grasse in Alpes-Maritime, to conserve their child’s umbilical cord blood for private purposes. By insisting on family history, they were able to justify their request as a therapeutic necessity and the cord blood was stored in a private bank in the UK. And yet the great potential of the stem cells contained in cord tissue in regenerative medicine has been recognised for several years by The National Academy of Medicine. It is regrettable that French families do not have the right to free access to this current and future medical revolution. This has the consequence of depriving families that might have a sick child in the future of the right to benefit from the therapeutic progress constantly being made in the field of stem cell therapies (with or without gene therapy associated with the grafting of stem cells).
A little girl with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, also known as butterfly children.
The story of hope for parents
And yet certain cases obtain authorisation in record time. For example, on the initiative of INSERM, the Necker-Enfants malades hospital in Paris and the specialist research team at the Percy hospital and army transfusion centre, CordSavings acted as a private stem cell bank for a little boy in France. Indeed, CordSavings carried out treatment and cryoconservation of umbilical cord blood and tissue collected from this little newborn child at the express request of the French health authorities. In this particular case, with the additional authorisation of ANSM, the French Medicines Agency. The objective was to treat his older sister, who was suffering from a serious and particularly painful illness (dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, also known as “butterfly syndrome”).
