Whose line is it anyway? Pregnant woman battles hospital over right to keep umbilical cord blood
Hospitals under fire as mothers are prevented from storing blood for stem-cell treatments
A pregnant woman is locked in a battle with the Hospital Authority over the right to keep the blood from her umbilical cord.
Iris Liu Shun-hang, 41, who plans to store the cord blood in case it is needed for future stem-cell treatments, said that the Hospital Authority had breached her human rights.
"It is a violation of patients' rights and human rights," Liu, now 38 weeks pregnant, said. "It is my own cord blood. Why should I not be allowed to keep it?"
The stem cells found in cord blood can be used to treat blood diseases such as leukaemia – but Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon has refused to allow Liu to keep hers despite months of complaints.
The controversy comes just weeks after an American woman won the right to keep her placenta following the birth of her baby boy at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam.
Melissa Grenham, who planned to turn the placenta into capsules to take for its supposed health benefits, was finally handed the organ after a protracted battle with the Health Authority.
Private hospitals allow mothers to store their cord blood in private facilities that are not regulated by the government. But the Hospital Authority allows only disposal or donation to the Red Cross cord-blood bank.