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Years of suffering - and months of struggling with the decision to end it - had brought them here: To a bright white living room where three of their children lay side by side by side, waiting to die. Les and Celeste Chappell loved the children, of course, and the thought of letting them go was excruciating, but holding on was just as painful. The children - Christopher, 20; Elizabeth, 19; and James, 15 - had been ravaged by a ruthless neurological disorder that, over the years, had stolen their ability to see and to swallow, to move and to...

Stem Cell Treatment Battles Deadly Destroyer Of Brains By ANDY DWORKIN   Daniel Kerner, 7, and dad Marcus Kerner after a physical therapy session at Doernbecher Children's Hospital. (Photo by Ross William Hamilton)     PORTLAND, Ore. — Doctors are halfway through a dramatic medical experiment that injects stem cells inside the skulls of children dying from the brain-destroying illness Batten disease.Since November, three children have been treated at Oregon Health & Science University with stem cells purified from fetuses. In animal tests, the cells made enzymes that Batten disease victims lack. Scientists hope for the same in people.The trial's...

Oregon Health & Science University will be the first, and maybe only, hospital to give a risky experimental stem-cell transplant to children dying of a rare nerve-destroying disease. In the coming months, as many as six children with Batten disease will travel to OHSU for injections of neural stem cells, primitive cells that can form new brain and nerve cells. The stem cells are taken from human fetuses, with their mothers' agreement, and processed and purified by a California company, StemCells Inc. At OHSU, a surgeon will inject the stem cells into eight areas of each child's brain. The theory...