If albumin is allowed when it's not from blood, could white blood cells from mother's milk be allowed?

by ILoveTTATT 23 Replies latest watchtower medical

  • sarahsmile
    sarahsmile

    I think your questioned should be posted on another forum. Maybe a place where a doctor can write you a reply.

    Good to read that people did not by into blood fractions. In Europe the JWs we're allowed to reuse their own blood!

  • Scully
    Scully

    Pasteurized human donor milk is flipping expensive. We use it extremely judiciously in our NICU. There are protocols up the wazoo for its use, consent forms for parents to sign, and we have to treat it as though it is a blood product.

    It's difficult to recruit donors, and part of the problem is that milk banks are not widely available in North America. I think there are maybe 3 or 4 that supply all of Canada's NICUs.

    I don't know if a cross-over agency (milk bank + blood donation service) is a feasible option, given that its only purpose would be to supply leukocyte infusions and fractions to JWs.

    Then there's the problem of extracting viable leukocytes from breast milk - would it require pasteurization or some other form of processing? How far do you want to go with obtaining fractions?

    FWIW, the richest supply of leukocytes in human milk occurs mostly in the first few days of milk production, with colostrum. Most women would want their own babies to have that limited supply, not some random, thankless JW who can't even be arsed to donate their own breastmilk or blood to help other people.

  • ILoveTTATT
    ILoveTTATT

    Scully:

    Thank you for that insight. So I guess in North America it's a no-no... not impossible but extremely unlikely.

    What about doing the "proof of concept" in another country where the restrictions are a bit less? We just need an animal trial, that shouldn't be too hard to get, even in North America. Then a human trial, that would be hard to do...

    Just remember, though, that with sufficient money and will, anything can be done. Even going to the moon, or going to Mars, or further than that...

  • TD
    TD
    Then there's the problem of extracting viable leukocytes from breast milk - would it require pasteurization or some other form of processing? How far do you want to go with obtaining fractions?

    Another problem is that neutrophils and not the only type of somatic cell found in milk. There's also epethelial and secretory cells shed from the mammary organ itself. How does one separate them?

    This isn't a problem with blood, (e.g. Any given unit of red cells is going to have some platelets and white cells mixed in) because the things you can't completely separate are still normal components of blood anyway.

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