Assembly gets pressure over stem cell bill

They walk with canes, their bodies victim to degenerative diseases with no known cure.

For 50-year-old John Kellermann, it’s Parkinson’s, a ruthless disease that seizes his body and sometimes his speech, leaving him so vulnerable that he has to crawl to the bathroom at night.

For Lois Fish, 61, it’s multiple sclerosis, a disease that has ravaged her bladder, eyesight and legs, forcing her to move from a charming, two-level house and take early retirement from the work she so loved.

Both say they believe that embryonic stem cell research - a cutting-edge area of biomedical science - offers their best hope for a cure. Legislation before the Maryland General Assembly would funnel $25 million intoe such research each year, mirroring a similar effort approved by voters in California last year.

- baltimoresun.com - Assembly gets pressure over stem cell bill

How many of one’s near and dear should suffer before he accedes to let science take it own path, a path to cure the world of such painful diseases?