Move to commercialise breast milk

[tank girl]

A US firm is looking to commercialise breast milk by selling it to hospitals for the treatment of sick babies...BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4744651.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4744651.stm (4/08/05)

Anyone else a little fazed by the potential "pandoras box" this sort of commercialisation poses?

There are no doubts that many positive repercussions that could stem from this in the medical world, probably one really important development on par with the benefits which have arisen from stem cell research...and about time, too.However, one step towards this, in combination with profit-driven imperatives (lacking in any real basic ethical and moral basis) of commercial strategy, what next?

- Might be seeing it next to fortified cows milk and soy on the supermarket shelves in the future???

- Sold as another speciality product on the booming health/beauty market to combat everything from ageing to cancer...next to DHA etc?

-Could we see (obviously in the most extreme scenario) mothers from third world countries voluntering their own milk in order to earn an income to provide companies with the means to meet the demand in western countries?

...just food for thought.

 

[tank girl]

ah yeah, sorry for stepping on your toes prof, didn't see your post in the S&T thread. I think this deserves to be in the real world thread.

Besides, you guys desperately need something else to talk about.

 

[Gonz]

on par with the benefits which have arisen from stem cell research...

What benefits? Refresh my memory please.

 

[ekahs retsam]

What benefits? Refresh my memory please.

from the NIH, enjoy
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/


Milk from a healthy human is the single best source of nutrition for infants ever produced. However, they must be "healthy" and a careful screening process be must in place to make sure a good product is produced. If you think about it the trade of breast milk isn't that much different then blood.

For adults breast milk is actually better then bovine milk mostly because it lacks artificial hormones. However, humans produce significantly less milk then cows so even if it was available on the open market the price would be unbelievably high! An average woman could not produce more then about 1-2 liters a day. Even at that level it is extremely hard on the body and can quickly drain it of essential vitamins. If you add to this the fact that most women can't lactate for more then a year or two regularly (mostly do to the level of hormones required to continue production) only makes it less economically feasible.

 

[Leslie]

I gotta say I would have a hard time (that was a euphamism for OH GOOD GOD EW btw) giving one of my infants someone else's milk.

And that's all I'm gonna say.

 

[Gonz]

potential therapy

The question still stands. What has it ALREADY done?

 

[tank girl]

I gotta say I would have a hard time (that was a euphamism for OH GOOD GOD EW btw) giving one of my infants someone else's milk.

And that's all I'm gonna say.

how about in the case of

- Prem babies?
- Orphans?
- Adopted children?
- Mothers who have problems producing milk?
- seriously ill mothers, with infections, wo are on some sort of medication, who are drug addicts ?

I definately agree that its weird thinking about giving your child somebody elses breast milk but then again is it really no different from donated blood, as ER said?

If you add to this the fact that most women can't lactate for more then a year or two regularly (mostly do to the level of hormones required to continue production) only makes it less economically feasible.

Cows are similar in that sense, though, more or less, aren't they?

Yet to produce milk "all year round" for the purposes of the milk industry they are pumped with hormones...

hmm

Back in the day, it was commonplace for wealthy mothers to hire "wet nurses" to breast-feed their babies.

I'm speculating about a similar, contemporary system arising from this sort of move -career mothers would be able to get back to work easier without sacrificing the "benefits" of human breast milk.

With the right marketing, people will buy anything if they are convinced that their lives will be better off - easier- or healthier with a given product.

 

[tank girl]

The question still stands. What has it ALREADY done?

at the moment...given hope. If restrictions were eased it would do a lot more.

 

[Gonz]

The only restriction made by the sitting Republican President of the United States of America is...NO FEDERAL FUNDING...there are zero restrictions in the private sector.

If it's so promising, why aren't the private pharmaceuticals doing more R&D? Private companies make discoveries, government interference only hampers them.

 

[HomeLAN]

Because it hasn't produced a mass-marketed remedy to date, it's useless? C'mon, Gonz, you can do better than that. The same logic can have been applied to basically any medical procedures or drugs used today at one point in time.

FTR, there are serious amounts of R&D going into this field.

http://www.stemnews.com/

There are many players in the field. The only reason the majors aren't into it to a greater extent is that they'd like to stay away from the useless beehive of public outrage over the issue. With the first good breakthrough, though, look for some of those boys to start making acquisitions. Profits speak pretty loudly, and the possibilities here are enormous.