Sam Brownback: “Fantastic. I have a picture I want to show, then, because this is a real hope. It is also a bit of a tragedy. Here is a…”

“Fantastic. I have a picture I want to show, then, because this is a real hope. It is also a bit of a tragedy. Here is a gentleman I hosted at a hearing about Parkinson's disease. He suffers from Parkinson's disease. He had an adult stem cell treatment. We got him in to testify. It is adult stem cells put back in his own part of the brain, it is his own cells, so there is not a rejection problem. He was Parkinson's free for 5 years. We had trouble getting him in to testify. He was out doing African safaris and things. We couldn't get him to come in. I say that because that is the beauty of it. The tragedy of it is some of the Parkinson's traits are coming back. He would love to have another treatment for Parkinson's with his own adult stem cells. Yet we have so few clinical trials going on, we are so short in the funding of this, that he is not able to get additional treatments or other Parkinson's patients aren't able to get this. I ask my colleagues, if we want to treat, let's take the half a billion dollars and let's put it into research for a guy such as this, where we have a real promising start. He was Parkinson's free of things here for 5 years, and then it started coming back. My final comment I have in the time I have left is: What a beautiful time. What an opportunity we have for people to live longer and better lives. This is a glorious time for us to make a step forward. Senator Feinstein from California and I cochair the cancer caucus.…”