Marcinkova Hopes Oversight into Cord Blood Taking Will Be Rigorous

Bratislava, October 24 (TASR) - The oversight of facilities carrying out the taking of cord blood should be rigorous, MP Vladimira Marcinkova (SaS) underlined on Thursday. Marcinkova voiced her appreciation for the approach by Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) who promised to look into the situation. The lawmaker also announced an MP's probe in the National Transplantation Organisation, slated for November 4. It will revolve around suspicions that the fundamental ban of the "use of the human body and its parts to acquire profits" has been violated. Marcinkova warned that the National Transplantation Organisation, which was supposed to carry out the oversight as a regulatory body, had a conflict of interest. The MP reiterated that there have been problems with the donation of cord blood and mothers didn't expect that theirs would be used for "experimental and profit-oriented purposes". Cord blood in Slovakia is taken by the Slovak Register of Placental Haemoplastic Cells, which is a part of the privately-owned Cord Blood Center Group. According to Marcinkova, the group sells the blood as a commercial commodity abroad. Register director Zohdy Hamid took objection to the "negative campaign" and claimed that the lawmaker is out to discredit the company in a purpose-built manner. Health Minister Sasko ordered an investigation into the cord blood-taking in Slovakia and confirmed that no supervision has been carried out in the sphere for a very long time. mf/mcs