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Does the church have any particular view concerning the umbilical cord stem cell banking?

Umbilical cord stem cells are a good replacement for the embryonic stem cells because it involves no loss of life or potential harm to an embryo or a fetus involved. The Coptic Orthodox Church believes that our human bodies belong to the Lord. There is an inherent human right  to attempt to preserve life and health to our bodies, which belong to God. Thus, it is our duty to develop and use scientific therapies that can assist us in taking care of our bodies to our optimal ability.

The promise of stem cell transplants creates the need for umbilical cord blood. Until the science advances to allow stem cells to be grown in culture, the useful cells that can be harvested from one umbilical cord/placenta are only enough to treat a single patient. So while in the past the placenta was  discarded, and later collected for use in the manufacture of cosmetics, it is now highly prized for the potentially lifesaving cells it contains.

Unfortunately, entrepreneurs saw financial promise in cord blood transplants and created commercial cord blood storage programs. These programs offer parents the opportunity to pay for their child's cord blood to be collected and frozen for the future in the unlikely event that they ever need to use it. The ultimate response to this is to create community banks where instead of storing the cord blood of individuals, cord blood can be collected from every baby born and stored in a community bank. Patients in need could make a suitably matched 'withdrawal', much as patients receive blood from blood banks. To create a community cord blood bank, cord blood should be collect from all births, with the consent of parents. This model is beginning to catch on, with community banks recently opened in some cities.