You can check out the article by clicking on the title above, or by going here: http://health.yahoo.com/news/144862

The article talks about how embryonic cells can be used to give patients neural transplants, which could extend the quality and length of life of those with Huntington's Disease.

Don't get me wrong---I am all about a cure. This is a horrible illness that do not want anyone to have to suffer through. There's not a day that passes that I don't hope for a cure. The treatment above is not a cure---it's a delay. HD patients are in sore need of delayed moments as well as miracles.

That said, we might want to consider the cost of stolen moments. I don't know when a fetus becomes a "real" person---the scientists themselves are torn over that question. Since there's no certainty, then wouldn't it be better to err on the side of caution? For its human beings that are the question, not elephants or viruses...or mollusks. (Not that these things are without their own dignity, but we seem to be more apt to dissect them than people.) If we do something that could take away from human life, shouldn't we at least consider the question? In this case, if we are seeking to cure a fatal disease, to offer up a chance at life, then how do we justify the possibility that we may be ending as many lives as might be saved?

I am not against scientific advancement---quite the contrary. I love the theory of relativity, string theory, the imagination necessary to approach any understanding of the natural world. I appreciate many of the gifts of technology: books, CDs, movies...The Internet :) It is the sweat of scientists that offers a possibility for a cure, and I applaud their efforts. It baffles my mind whenever I think of all the men and women in white coats, hunched over microscopes in countless laboratories trying to understand a clump of degenerate cells. These people and I are linked so intimately because they carry my future with every slow turning of knobs. They are clever enough to come up with a cure without having to rely on questionable practices.