(APPLAUSE)
On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries.
In November, we witnessed a landmark achievement when scientists discovered a way to reprogram adult skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells.
This breakthrough has the potential to move us beyond the divisive debates of the past by extending the frontiers of medicine without the destruction of human life.
(APPLAUSE)
So we're expanding funding for this type of ethical medical research. And, as we explore promising avenues of research, we must also ensure that all life treated with the dignity it deserves.
And so I call on Congress to pass legislation that bans unethical practices such as the buying, selling, patenting or cloning of human life.

"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
~Albert Einstein

In extreme parenthood you don't understand things. You just get used to them.

Me

Why parents can't stop cuddling little Rhys

Jean Parry, South Wales Echo

A YEAR ago Rhys Harris' family dared not think about 2008.

Each and every day was a fight for little Rhys, as he battled with a rare genetic condition called Nemo, which attacks the immune system.

Even after the six-year-old had a life-saving bone marrow transplant his devoted parents could not spontaneously hug or kiss him because he had to live in strict isolation in a "bubble" to protect his new immune system.

His mum and dad, who like any parent instinctively wanted to hold their ill son, could only look on as Rhys was confined to the sterile ward.

It was, they say, one of the most heartbreaking experiences they could have faced.

But today, on New Year's Eve, his family from Newbridge, Caerphilly county, who have been astounded by the youngster's amazing recovery, are looking forward to the year ahead.

And they are busy making up for lost time, giving the youngster all the cuddles and kisses he could ever want.

"At the time it was extremely difficult. It was a tough regime," his dad Keith, 43, said.

"We couldn't even hug him or kiss him and even that had to be kept to a bare minimum just in case we passed on an infection that could kill him.

"Since he has been home we have been making up for lost time with lots of cuddling."

Without a bone marrow transplant doctors gave Rhys just 12 to 18 months to live. But in September the Harris family, dad Kevin, mum Dawn, a former beautician, and Morgan, five, heard the news they had been longing for. A bone marrow match - not perfect but acceptable - had been found for Rhys in the United States.

It was to be the beginning of a momentous new chapter in their lives - one which began with them contemplating life without their son, but which ended with Rhys out of hospital and home in time for Christmas.

After the match was found his family moved to Newcastle and set up home in a flat not far from the city's main hospital, one of only two in Britain where complicated bone marrow procedures to save Rhys' life could be carried out.

The bone marrow was flown from America days before the operation took place.

After the transplant Rhys, who was left almost totally deaf after suffering from meningitis at the age of nine months, lived in the air-tight chamber to prevent any risk of infection. His parents could only cuddle him after being surgically scrubbed.

Doctors originally predicted he would have to stay in the bubble for up to nine months, but were astonished when Rhys left the hospital to go home less than two months after his life-saving treatment.

Now the Harris family have just been able to enjoy Christmas together at their temporary home close to the hospital - a feat no-one could have predicted this time last year.

"With Rhys here we have just had the best Christmas present," said Keith, who travelled with the family to Lapland for Christmas 2006 as a special treat for the youngster.

"We've been given a miracle because Christmas Day was one Rhys may not have had and we are so grateful.

"We had a lovely, family day together."

Little Rhys' progress has delighted doctors and his army of supporters, who were not only touched by his plight, but who pitched in to help the Harris family.

After rugby mad Rhys's condition - diagnosed in 2004 and which affects just 35 people in the world - became public, the world of Welsh rugby, business, schools and more have been fundraising for his family and publicising the Nemo and bone marrow causes.

A Cardiff Blues fan, Rhys was proudly chosen as the mascot for the World Cup warm-up match at the Millennium Stadium last August, prior to the family relocating to Newcastle for his operation.

Kevin said: "The rugby boys like Michael Owen of the Dragons have been fantastic throughout. Rhys has brought together some long-term friendships that we will treasure for ever.

"We had a wonderful charity ball which my all-time rugby legend, Jonathan Davies, hosted and made me cry with laughter.

"We met all the Welsh Clubs and they have all been fantastic to Rhys."

But one moment which stands out particularly this last year came when tiny Rhys met the late, great rugby legend Ray Gravell only a short time before his death.

"We had taken Rhys to see the Ospreys play Stade Francais when this great bear of a man came over who was Grav," said Kevin.

"It was a lovely, touching moment because Grav was such a massive man and Rhys so tiny."

As 2007 fades into 2008, the family is looking forward to a bright future for their son.

They are even hoping to come home to South Wales in the spring. But for now they are taking everything one step at a time.

"We are not out of the woods for another six months. The main thing is we have to watch for the chance that his body could still reject the bone marrow," said Kevin.

To have gone through what Rhys, his parents and his little brother have is unimaginable, but as Kevin explained, the family has had to stick together and be strong.

As we all wish each other a Happy New Year in the coming days the whole of South Wales and beyond will be doing so especially for the brave youngster and his family.

Article here.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
~Robert Frost

PARIS (AFP) -- A team of American scientists reported Sunday that they had widened the scope of a Japanese breakthrough in stem cells that many experts have hailed as the greatest medical achievement of 2007.

In November, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and colleagues announced they had reprogrammed human skin cells to have the multiple potency of stem cells culled from human embryos.

Stem cells are early cells that differentiate into one of the 220 different types of cells in the body.

Medical researchers hope that one day, these cells can be grown in a lab dish to become specific replacement tissue to replenish organs ravaged by disease or damaged in accidents or warfare.

Yamanaka's team used a retrovirus to deliver four genes into skin cells taken from a mouse and an adult human.

In essence, this turned the clock back so that these cells lost their differentiated profile and became so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS.

Reporting on Sunday in Nature, a team led by George Daley of the Children's Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, say they have been able to use the same four genes to derive iPS from foetal lung and skin cells, from neo-natal skin cells as well as from skin samples taken from a healthy human volunteer.

The research is important as it marks a step forward to "patient-specific" stem cells -- in other words, transplanted stem cells that carry the same genetic code as the patient and thus cannot be rejected as alien by the body's immune system, they say.

The researchers also found that they could generate iPS without a cancer gene called c-Myc that has been implicated in tumours in many lab mice in earlier experiments.

That replicates a similar finding by Yamanaka's own team, published after the first breakthrough was reported.

The researchers stress, though, that many hurdles lie on the road ahead before iPS is certified as safe and effective and can be used to grow replenishment tissue.

"Clinical success with human iPS cells must await the development of methods that avoid potentially harmful genetic modification," they write, saying that "a worthy goal" would be to find biochemicals to replace gene infiltration for inducing iPS.

by Nathan Bevan, Wales On Sunday

IT'S the Christmas they thought he'd never see.

This time last December the parents of little Rhys Harris were told that because of an ultra-rare genetic illness their son would have less than a year to live.

But now the courageous six-year-old from Newbridge has amazed doctors by being discharged from hospital just two months after receiving a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

"They say this time of year is a time for miracles and that's what we've been given - a miracle," said Rhys' ecstatic dad Kevin, 43.

"Last Christmas we took him to Lapland because we honestly believed it would be last one he'd ever see.

"I never would have dreamed back then I'd be having this conversation with you now. I would never have dared."

Rhys' plight touched hearts around Wales.

The Hollybush Primary school pupil was diagnosed in 2004 as having NEMO, a terminal condition that affects only 35 people in the world.

"NEMO attacks the body's immune system and leaves the sufferer extremely susceptible to disease," said Kevin, who gave up his job running a car repair firm to be his son's full-time carer.

"Then when Rhys contracted TB, we were told there were drugs that could fend it off for a while but after a while they'd lose their effect and that would be it."

Both he and wife Dawn, a former beautician, were left with the agonising choice of watching their son slowly die or risk him having a bone marrow transplant and the chemotherapy killing him instead.

Finally, in September this year, the Harris family were told a bone marrow match had been found for Rhys in the US, a moment they thought would never come.

"We'd waited so long to be told that, after a while, you begin to wonder if it would ever happen - it's sad but inevitable," said Kevin.

So, along with Dawn and older son, Morgan, they prepared to make the move to Newcastle, the General Hospital there being one of only two places in the UK where the gruelling medical procedure could take place.

"The doctors only gave it a 30 to 40 per cent chance of it working and we were told Rhys would be in a bubble for up to nine months afterwards," he said, describing the grim prospect of their boy being kept in strict isolation in sterile ward while being unable to so much as give him a kiss.

"We couldn't even hug him unless we'd been surgically scrubbed first

"But even that had to be kept at a bare minimum just in case we passed on an infection that could kill him."

The whole process was made even harder because Rhys is severely deaf - the result of meningitis at nine months old.

"It's difficult for Rhys to communicate his feelings, but he's really tough and resilient," said Kevin. "Then again kids tend to be a lot better at adapting to these sort of things than the adults do.

"And in a way, it is not a bad thing that we couldn't really tell him what was going on. That way he stayed blissfully unaware."

Since October the family have been living in Newcastle, in a flat just four miles from the hospital, but they hope to be back in Wales by the Spring.

"We're not out of the woods for another six months yet," said Kevin.

"Rhys has a whole pharmacy of drugs to contend with, but it is not too bad.

"The main thing we've got to watch for is the chance that his body could still reject the bone marrow," said Kevin.

"But he's itching to go exploring with his brother and has asked me to get his metal detector ready for him.

"He is, to put it mildly, mad and has not stopped running around like a lunatic.

"Hopefully the novelty of being home will wear off soon and he will slow down."

But right now, the family are preparing to be together for Christmas.

Kevin said: "We want to make this the best Christmas ever, I know me and Dawn have already had the best present we could ever ask for."

And what about Rhys, what does he want from Santa?

"Well, you know those big Argos catalogues?" asked Kevin.

"He wants everything in those!"

 

Article here.