Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I moved the motion before the House because it deals with an issue that I am extremely passionate about and believe needs broader community awareness. That issue is the use of umbilical cord blood. Why is this cord blood so important? Cord blood is very rich in stem cells, and these are the building blocks of all blood cells in our bodies. They carry oxygen, fight infection and stop bleeding. As the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry website explains:

The most common diseases currently treated using cord blood are related to blood disorders and some cancers such as:

• Immune deficiency
• Leukaemias
• Blood diseases such as Aplastic and Fanconi Anaemia
• Metabolic storage diseases
• Thalassaemia

Leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders can develop in anyone of any age at any time. It is estimated that every two hours someone loses their life to leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma. The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry notes:

In the future the range of diseases treated using cord blood might be expanded due to new technological and scientific advances.

Internationally, the use of human cord blood goes back to the 1970s, when the first report was released. In the 1980s, cord blood was shown to have similar attributes to bone marrow and recommended to be used as a bone marrow alternative in transplantation. In 1988, in Paris, the first successful cord blood transplant to regenerate blood and immune cells was completed on a six-year-old boy suffering from Fanconi anaemia, a blood disorder. Since that time, progress has steadily moved forward.

I became aware of blood cord donations when, in 2000, as an anxious and excited mum to be, I was handed a form from the Mater Mothers Hospital as part of the admission forms. The form asked me if I would give consent to donating the umbilical cord upon the birth of my child. As a first-time mother I was excited to think that I could make a difference in saving lives by donating what I understood to be a very valuable source for research into stem cells. After I delivered my daughter, Emma, I asked about my donation and was advised that the umbilical cord was not kept. The reason given was that the cord needed to be picked up by the blood bank that processed blood cords between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. Unfortunately, my daughter was not born between these times. In 2002 I found myself in the same situation. Having given consent to donate the cord, I gave birth to my second child, Cameron, who happened to arrive on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. Once again, the cord could not be donated.

Umbilical cord blood is collected from the placentas of recently delivered newborns and is an accepted alternative to bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells as a source of haematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs, for transplantation. For many paediatric transplant indications, umbilical cord blood is regarded as the preferred source of HSCs. The advantage of cord blood as a source of HSCs relates to its ease of procurement and its less stringent human leukocyte antigen, or HLA, compatibility requirements. Outcomes are influenced by cell dose, HLA matching and the length of the search process. Research is in progress to explore the means of optimising the effectiveness of cord blood transplants in adults.

What currently happens with the umbilical cord and placenta after a child’s birth is that they are disposed of as medical waste. This rich source of stem cells is simply thrown away in most cases. Considering the debates that have gone before us in this House on therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell research, the donation of cord blood does not carry such heavy moral burdens for our society. As such, many more women across Australia may be willing to be donors. Cord blood is obtained only from those mothers who are medically suitable and who have provided their written consent. While cord units are freely donated, there are substantial costs associated with the collection, processing, banking and matching of cord units. Only those hospitals accredited with the cord blood banks are able to collect cord blood. The collecting, processing and storage of cord blood are specialised techniques that need to be performed by trained and accredited staff. The cord blood collected also needs to be processed as soon as practicable, usually within 48 hours of collection.

To maximise Australia’s cord blood collection requires the collection and banking of cords which are most in demand by transplant patients or which better reflect the diversity of tissue types in the Australian population. For example, the National Cord Blood Collection Network commenced collection of Indigenous cord blood units in the 2006-07 financial year. At the end of December 2007, 52 Indigenous cord blood units had been banked. Compare this with the fact that in 2008 there were 15,000 births registered where at least one parent was an Indigenous Australian.

Simply ensuring more cord blood banking does not necessarily equal better clinical results. What is needed are strategies that focus on those cord units most in demand, which would increase the likelihood of providing a match unit. In the case of Indigenous Australians, it is about developing the strategies to increase the banking of suitable cord blood units. I do believe, however, that with the expansion of services for collection and the potential for more unused cord blood donations to be donated for research when they are unsuitable for transplantation we could provide greater opportunities for scientists to find new and improved ways of using HSCs.

Currently, cord blood banks operate in New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Victoria and Queensland. There are no participant hospitals in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. With a total of 296,600 births registered in 2008 in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it is worth investigating improved strategies for the future. At this point, I wish to acknowledge the efforts made over the past decade in the area of cord blood donation. The previous Howard government, in 2000, assisted in the establishment of the Australian National Cord Blood Collection Network. The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry, since 2001, has been funded by the Commonwealth and the state and territory governments for the operation of the National Cord Blood Collection Network. The ABMDR has contracts with each of the three public cord blood banks to collect, process, store, test and release Therapeutic Goods Administration compliant cord blood units.

I congratulate the federal Labor government, and particularly the Minister for Health and Ageing, for continuing to fund, and in fact increasing funding to, the National Cord Blood Collection Network in the budget for 2010-11. In Budget Paper No. 2 for 2010-11 it is noted that the government will provide $18.1 million over four years to continue and increase the level of funding for the National Cord Blood Collection Network, also known AusCord. It is noted in the budget papers that the increase in funding will improve the sustainability of the National Cord Blood Collection Network and bring funding in line with support for other blood products.

The government has also committed to continuing to work with the states and territories and the National Cord Blood Collection Network to ensure that the supply of cord blood units is adequate to meet the needs of the Australian population. I welcome the federal Labor government’s commitment to cord blood donation and hope that through public debates such as the debate on this motion more awareness can be generated in the broader community. With the knowledge that stem cells collected and processed through cord blood are potentially being used for transplantation to individuals with leukaemia, lymphoma and similar life-threatening diseases, I hope that all members would support this motion.

I end by thanking all of the scientists and medical professionals who every day are working on new ways to save lives, who persevere in their aim to find a cure for so many diseases that take the loved ones of so many people. These are diseases that take the lives of the young before they even get to create memories. To those scientists and medical professionals who are already today saving people from diseases that we once thought of as terminal—to all those hardworking medical professionals—we say thank you. I commend this motion to the House.

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