This Would Be Even More Exciting If the US Had Socialized Healthcare

...thus insuring (or at least making more likely) that everyone would have equal access to it:

Two US companies this year broke new ground by winning regulatory approval to start the first experiments using embryonic stem cells on humans [with] spinal cord injury and blindness.

The potent but hotly debated cells can transform into nearly any cell in the human body, opening a path toward eliminating such ills as Parkinson's disease, paralysis, diabetes, heart disease, and maybe even [aging].

...[Bob Lanza, chief scientist at Advanced Cell Technology] said the advances, while they still face rigorous testing, offer promise toward treating a host of diseases, and could one day eliminate the need for amputation of limbs, blood transfusions and transplants from strangers.

"Some time in the future, perhaps in the lifetime of most of your readers, you'll get in an accident and lose a kidney and they will take a skin cell and just grow you up a new organ," said Lanza. "That field is just roaring ahead."

Neat. I'm totes gonna keep a spare kidney in the glovebox of my flying car.

(I also look forward to the day when we can get an article about medical advances without ableist language. Wheeeee!)