Some encouraging news out of Maryland this week, in the field of adult stem cell research and treatment:

Nineteen-month-old Mason Shaffer has no qualms about somersaulting off a couch in his family’s Pennsylvania home. He’s equally fearless when exploring new surroundings or playing a spirited round of peek-a-boo with his mother.

It’s a far cry from a year ago when Mason couldn’t even sit up or rollover. Afflicted with malignant infantile osteopertrosis, a rare bone disease, Mason was severely underdeveloped and in significant pain. His life was saved through a transplant of adult stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood donated to a public collecting bank.

“He’s cured,” said Sarah Shaffer, Mason’s mother. “He’s completely normal. For me, it’s exhilarating.”

The Shaffer family was on hand at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center during an Oct. 11 press conference to celebrate the establishment of Maryland’s first public umbilical cord blood banking program. Organizers believe it has the potential to save the lives of many children and adults like Mason.

Through the program, women giving birth at Mercy will be given the option of donating their babies’ umbilical cord blood to be listed on the National Marrow Donor Program registry for use by patients in need of life-saving transplants. Community Blood Services of New Jersey will receive the donated cord blood and bank it for future use throughout the country and around the world.

Adult stem cells contained in the blood can be used to treat more than 90 diseases, including many types of cancers and blood disorders.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said the launch of the program represents a “day of hope for God’s people who may be suffering from life-threatening or debilitating diseases.”

“Allowing parents to make the harmless and life-giving donation of their baby’s umbilical cord blood fits beautifully with Catholic hospitals’ mission of providing life-affirming health care,” he said, noting that St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore is soon to become the second hospital in Maryland to collect umbilical cord blood.

“There’s a common misconception that the Catholic Church is opposed to stem cell research,” he said. “That is wrong. The church has long supported adult stem cell research, but is opposed to embryonic stem cell research, which destroys human embryos and which has yet to cure a single disease.”

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