Cord Blood Banking

So one of the decisions that we want to figure out before the big day comes is where to bank the baby's cord blood. Seems like there are 2 big private banks: Cord Blood Registry and Viacord. And there are also many public cord blood banks as well. Neither one of us has a history of diseases that are typically thought of for cord blood treatment, but since dna matters, they say that people of mixed ethnic origin should consider that matches are harder to find. I'm not sure if half japanese and half chinese counts, but either way seems like a finding a match is going to be hard enough as it is.

The cost of a private blood bank is a good chunk of change. The public cord blood banks run the risk of someone else having a match, the cells being used for research or maybe issues with access if it has not been used yet. I think right now we're leaning toward the public bank. If I died tomorrow and someone needed my heart, I don't think I'd want my family to deny that person a chance to live on the off chance that someone in my family might need it in the future. What are the real chances of us needing them? But then would I feel differently if it were my own child?