Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yesterday]

Read this on Reuters - Geez... some people will do anything to make money....

SEOUL (Reuters) - Forget desktop photographs of your children.

Doting South Korean parents can preserve their child's umbilical cord in acrylic resin to make a personal seal or even have it gold plated.

In this Confucian society where family values are highly prized, suppliers also offer services for parents to have traditional Korean calligraphy brushes made from their child's hair.

Shim Jae-cheol of U&I Impression said the firm had gold-plated about 80 to 100 umbilical cords a month since starting business in August, with prices ranging from 80,000 won to 100,000 won ($76 to $96). It also offers mail order.

South Korean law allows parents to keep the umbilical cord of their children, although sales to a third party would be illegal.

Another supplier, Agamo, which makes calligraphy brushes made from human hair and preserves umbilical cords in personal seals, hopes to branch out to Japan.

"The company got the idea from mothers just storing umbilical cords and navels in an album or what-not," said Suk Tae-jin of Agamo.

Keeping children's umbilical cords and making calligraphy brushes from their hair have long been a long tradition in Korea.

[little mixed girl]

why would u sell the cord to a 3rd party?

[prairieboy]

Umbilical blood, stem cells, who knows?

[Real Reality]

Umbilical cord cells 'allow paralysed woman to walk'
A woman who has been paralysed for almost 20 years has started to walk again after scientists injected stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood into her spine.
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/30/wcells30.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/11/30/ixworld.html

Umbilical Cord Banks, both private and public, have developed since in the mid- to late 1990s in response to the success of umbilical cord blood transplants in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems, such as Fanconi's Anemia and Leukemia. Umbilical Cord Blood, hereafter called "UCB," once seen as waste to be discarded after a birth, is now viewed as a precious resource. Since the first successful UCB transplant was performed on a child with Fanconi's anemia in 1988, more than 2000 patients have been treated with this procedure. UCB contains hematopoietic stem cells, progenitor cells that can form red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets and can be used to treat many diseases of the blood and immune systems.

Public banks, established by medical centers, accept donations for use by anyone in need. Once the blood is donated, it loses all identifying information after a short period of initial testing, so that families will not be able to retrieve their blood later. Private banking allows families to preserve their blood for their own use. For-profit private banks charge a fee of around $2000 to preserve a newborn��s UCB for possible use by the family later.
Umbilical cord blood bank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbilical_cord_blood_bank

[Yesterday]

Major laboratories (ESP USA companies) make a fortune out of dealing in umbilical cords, foreskins (after circumcision) and aborted f_____.
Its why the USA really pushes circumcision - big money in dealing in human bits and pieces.

I just find it a bit repulsive though - turning 18 or 21 in korea and having my parents give me my own **gold-plated Umbilical cord Seal** as a present - and then carrying it around and using it in banks etc when i signed my name....

[hojucandy]

why you no type "foetuses?"

umbilical cords are full of hormones and stem cells - all sorts of good stuff. valuable commodity.

my children's placentae and cords were all buried, with ceremony, and a tree planted over them. those trees continue to thrive.

as do my children

[Sooke]

I've never seen a gold plated umbilical cord plaque,

but when I used to teach at this house, they had made an impression (and then they must have made a mold of it) of the only son's genitals (from about just below the belly button to the top of his thighs), and that was gold plated. Now the boy i was teaching was about 8 or 9, but the impression must have been made right when he was a newborn.

It literally looked like a little peanut. When he was acting bad, i would point to it and ask him "is that you?" and then he would calm down.

How could i see this golden beauty?, you may ask. Simple, it was hanging on the wall above the kitchen table, along with a shrine of about 10 zillion pictures of the kid. Not a single picture of his little sister. I guess that would kinda suck for her self esteem.

[peppergirl]

In Japan the mother keeps part of the umbelical cord of her child, as a symbol for their bond. Saw one once, I thought it was pretty disgusting.

[dogbert]

I'd eat a placenta, if I had a reliable source.

[rapier]

Its pretty disgusting to me.
I once had to watch doting Korean parents going all gooey at a photo of their babies first poo. It was pride of place in their album, their faces lit up when they turned the page to it.

People should get real interests in life, not collect decaying body parts of family members.

[dogbert]

[rapier]

[dogbert]

Interesting distinction. I must say I had never considered that before.

I would suspect that many of us have indulged in hobbies of both types.

Of course, I would not consider having an umbilical cord trinket made a hobby, but rather a waste of money.

[chiaa]

You should see how much funeral clothes are.