Dianne Feinstein: “As the senior Senator from California, a lifelong Californian, I will make a few remarks about Chris Reeve. I remember…”

“As the senior Senator from California, a lifelong Californian, I will make a few remarks about Chris Reeve. I remember when I saw Chris Reeve in ``Superman.'' He was 25 years old. He was amazing. We now learn he did some of his own stunts. And then what followed was the ``5th of July,'' and I remember ``Somewhere in Time.'' We saw this tall, handsome actor, seemingly invulnerable. I remember the film footage when he went over that jump on a horse. We learned that he had severed a vertebra high in his neck which canceled out all speech and rendered him quadriplegic for the rest of his life. As many know, it is rare that an individual survives more than 2 years with this form of injury. Yet he survived for 9 years. I remember listening to a CNN interview with Paula Zahn over stem cells. He said: When somebody lies still and doesn't move anything for a matter of days, cannot even scratch their nose, let them talk to me about stem cell research. In fact, this is a catastrophic injury presenting him with a catastrophic problem. So many people suffer from many of these injuries and from catastrophic disease, all of which may well be helped if we go eagerly, enthusiastically, and scientifically into stem cell research. That is the challenge.”