I was reading American Airlines magazine on the plane yesterday and in the letters to the editor was this:

"I am a biological scientist, and your article on umbilical-cord blood (A Different Kind of Birthday Gift," October 15, 2007 ) was a pleasant surprise. Too often, the media has gotten caught up in the hype of embryonic-stem-cell rsearch and the hope associated with it. The story's author, John Carroll, did a nice job of presenting the value of umbilicl-cord blood as a source of relatively immune silent stem cells available without ethical baggage.

Other tissues asociated with a mother and her baby in utero are also good sources of stem cells, among them those from the umbilical cord, plcenta, and amniotic fluid. Scientist have predicted that banks of cell lines obtained from 100,000 pregnancies could offer reasonably good tissue matches to 99 percent of the population. Mothers may one day be able to deliver treatment to their babies as well as to many others.

A.F. Kertz, PHD, St.Louis, Missouri

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I just wish I could have read the article!