It is legal to store stem cells in regular legal institutions.
Approved by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, through the practice of acceptance to obtain the "blood station license" in order to carry out the relevant umbilical cord blood collection and supply business, a province, a bank, is strictly prohibited across the region of the illegal blood collection, supervised and regulated by the provincial health administrative departments. The cord blood must be stored in a legal and qualified cord blood bank in order to be protected.
The Ministry of Health "cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank management measures" (for trial implementation) stipulates
Article 2 The cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank refers to the human hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for the purpose of the collection, processing, preservation and provision of hematopoietic stem cells with the ability to collect, processing, preservation and provide hematopoietic stem cells, and has a considerable research strength of the special blood station. No unit or individual shall conduct cord blood collection and supply activities for profit.
Article 22 The umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank must implement the provisions of China's Measures for the Administration of Blood Stations (Interim) regarding the management of blood collection and supply.?
Article 23 The umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank collecting and supplying umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells must strictly abide by the technical operating procedures and systems. Personnel involved in the collection, processing and management of cord blood shall comply with the requirements in the Technical Specification for Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cell Banks.
The Technical Specifications for Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cell Banks shall be formulated separately by the health administrative department of the State Council.
Article 24 Units and individuals who have not obtained the license to practice cord blood hematopoietic stem cell banking are not allowed to carry out the business of collecting and supplying cord blood hematopoietic stem cells.
Article 25 The collection of umbilical cord blood shall follow the principle of voluntary and informed consent. In addition to the collection and supply of both sides must sign an informed consent, and shall comply with the relevant requirements of medical ethics.
Article 26 Clinical application units can only accept cord blood provided by cord blood hematopoietic stem cell banks with practice license.? The cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank can only provide cord blood for transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells to the clinical units which have experience and foundation in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and are equipped with sterile wards and other necessary facilities required for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and which have been approved by the provincial health administrative department.?
Article 27 For humanitarian purposes, to meet the needs of saving lives and alleviating injuries, and must be provided to overseas medical units for transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells with umbilical cord blood, shall be strictly in accordance with the relevant provisions of the management of China's genetic resources protection measures to handle the formalities.
Article 28 The umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank shall ensure that the quality of the cord blood provided, the number and activity of hematopoietic stem cells, the requirements of HLA mating, and the detection of pathogens shall be error-free. Those that are not tested or fail to pass the test shall not be provided to medical institutions.?
Expanded Information
Related Regulations on Stem Cell Storage
The National Health Planning Commission and the State Food and Drug Administration jointly issued the "Measures for the Administration of Clinical Research on Stem Cells (for Trial Implementation)," which explicitly stipulates that
Institutions engaged in clinical research on stem cells must be those that have a Level 3A hospital, a drug clinical trial organization Qualification and stem cell clinical research and other related conditions and approved by the National Health Planning Commission. At the same time, they may not charge subjects for stem cell clinical research, and may not publish or disguise advertisements for stem cell clinical research.
Clinical blood must use qualified blood from legitimate blood stations
Regular hospitals must use qualified blood from legitimate blood stations for clinical blood. Some "stem cell organizations" are not legitimate blood banks, and families that save cord blood with them will face the dilemma of not being able to receive the blood from their hospitals once they are sick and need to use it in the future.
Cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank is approved by the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the special blood station, through the practice of acceptance to obtain the "blood station license" in order to carry out the relevant cord blood collection and supply business, a provincial library, illegal blood collection across the region is strictly prohibited.
According to Article 24 of the Measures for the Administration of Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cell Banks (for Trial Implementation) issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, units and individuals who have not obtained the license for cord blood hematopoietic stem cell banks are not allowed to carry out the business of collecting and supplying cord blood hematopoietic stem cells. And it also stipulates that clinical application units can only accept cord blood stem cells provided by cord blood stem cell banks with licenses to practice.
Source of reference? Ministry of Health on the issuance of the "cord blood hematopoietic stem cell bank management measures" (trial)