中国脐血库公共库与私人库的紧张态势.pdfVIP

East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (2011) 5:329–339 DOI 10.12151408076 Cord-Blood Banking in China: Public and Private Tensions Haidan Chen Received: 9 July 2010 / Accepted: 28 January 2011 q National Science Council, Taiwan 2011 Abstract Cord-blood banking has become an important component in the develop- ment of stem-cell innovation and regenerative medicine, but this field is also charac- terized by acute uncertainty. This essay explores China’s public–private banking model through an empirical case study of the Tianjin Cord Blood Bank. I argue that the Chinese model of “using banks to pay for banks” reflects a mutation in contem- porary biopolitics. This model could help solve funding problems in the collection of public cord blood, but it also creates public–private tensions and dilemmas within the cord-blood economy. Thus, robust and strict regulations are needed to encourage the development of biomedical innovation while protecting the public interest in China. Keywords cord blood stem cells blood bank biopolitics China 1 Introduction The burgeoning interest in stem cells and regenerative medicine has made the collec- tion of umbilical cord blood a topic of great and controversial interest. Once con- sidered waste, umbilical cord blood now is recognized as a clinically valuable biological material and is used as a substitute for bone marrow in the treatment of blood diseases (Waldby and Mitchell 2006). The first cord-blood transplant was per- formed in France in 1988. A six-year-old boy with severe Fanconi anemia received umbilical cord blood from a younger sister with identical human leukocyte antigens (HLA), subsequently regaining his health (Gluckman et al. 1989). Since that time, more than 3,500 cord-blood transplants have been performed worldwide (Warwick and Armitage 2004). Cord blood has several advantages over bone marrow: it is harvested at