Doctors turn to aborted fetus to save boy's life
Experimental procedure transplanted stem cells into 6-year-old's brain
Dec 11, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - Daniel Kerner’s parents knew the experimental brain surgery was risky, but without it the 6-year-old surely would die.

Last month in Portland, Ore., doctors for the first time transplanted stem cells from aborted fetuses into his head in a desperate bid to reverse, or at least slow, a rare genetic disorder called Batten disease. The so-far incurable condition normally results in blindness and paralysis before death.

Doctors don’t know if the neural stem cells taken from fetuses — donated to a nonprofit medical foundation by women aborting early-stage pregnancies — will save Daniel’s life. But the boy has sufficiently recovered from his 8-hour surgery to be expected to return to his Orange County, Calif., home Friday — the first day of Hanukkah. the rest