Stem Cell Treatment for Ill 5-year Old Girl

Parents of young children with genetic disorders and turning to untried stem cell therapies in desperate attempts to find a cure their kids.

One example was reported by the BBC News website yesterday.

A five-year-old girl from Sussex, south England, has started receiving stem cell therapy in a remote hospital in China in an attempt to halt a degenerative disease.
Sacha Skinner, from Brighton, suffers from Batten's Disease - a rare disorder inherited through her genes - which affects her speech and movement.

Her family raised £20,000 for the trip as the treatment is illegal in the UK. Sacha is scheduled to have four injections taken from umbilical cords over a period of one month.

Annette Dacosta, Sacha's mother, said: "Maybe I am offering her up as a guinea pig to be the first child to see what happens with stem cells. If it works, fantastic. If it doesn't work, then my child's had four injections and she's come out of it unscathed. Yes there is a moral issue but no one's getting hurt. Umbilical cord stem cells are being used for Sacha which would normally be incinerated."

Sacha will be treated at a clinic in Shenyang in northern China.