Day’s Best: Why is stem cell research important? Hannah can have a normal life

Stem cell research is so controversial at times we forget the benefits.

Look no further than 2-year-old Hannah Warren, a girl whod spent her entire short life in a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, unable to breathe, eat, drink or swallow on her own because she was born without a windpipe.

But now after an operation in Illinois, Hannah has a new windpipe grown from her own stem cells. The procedures been done before, but Hannah is the youngest patient in the world to undergo the experimental treatment.

Doctors in Korea told the girls parents there was nothing that could be done and that she was likely to die.

But after the surgery, things are looking up. Though Hannah is still on a ventilator, doctors believe shell eventually be able to breathe on her own and lead a normal life.

We feel like shes reborn, the girls father, Darryl Warren, said.

The stem-cell technology that saved Hannah also has been used to grow bladders, urethras and even veins and could help treat birth defects and other childhood diseases. Scientists hope stem-cell technology can someday help create organs like kidneys and livers.

Hannah cant eat normally yet, but shes had her first taste of food ever, licking a lollipop.

I asked her, Is it good? her father said, and she immediately nodded her head.

We should support, not fear, the remarkable stem cell research being done to help save lives or which helps a little girl taste a lollipop.

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Day’s Best: Why is stem cell research important? Hannah can have a normal life