My point is, there have been zero promising developments from this research.
"Proteins called amyloid-B peptides that accumulate in plaques around brain cells are known to contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Stem cell researchers have been able to dissolve these proteins in laboratory conditions by discoving the body's natural mechanism for regulating them. It is the hope that this discovery will lead to an Alzheimer's therapy within the next ten years."
I made that paragraph up with the help of this article (copying the first sentence above.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20050723/hl_hsn/scientistsshednewlightonalzheimers
The point is, that stem cell research has been going on for quite some time, and no such discovery has been made. In fact, at this point, they are still dreaming up possible cures that will come of the research; they have no idea if any of these will pan out.
Some say that unless we try, how do we know whether or not this will work?
I say, how do we know when this is a dead-end? You could have made the same argument about alchemy a few centuries ago. It wasn't until we understood nuclear chemistry that we could say that you can't realistically turn lead into gold.
Do we throw our tax dollars at this forever saying that the benefits are too far off to measure?