Sadly, this is one of my soapbox subjects (no, save the comments!
).
Advances in medical technology are amazing, and no, I'm not stupid enough to say that things were better all the time before our current and possible future advances. That said, in the "old days", people would get tired and weak and die, and everyone would mourn them. Now, they get told they have cancer, they might or might not live, and their familiars begin the mourning process before the death, while the unwell individual every day knows they have a fatal disease. Mind you, we all have that fatal disease, it's called life.
Life is fatal, simple as that. You're born, you die, the bit in the middle is called life (to steal a quote). Adapt. We can't live forever, humans or any other life form currently known to mankind (don't even
think about throwing aliens into this), we are not built to last forever. How on earth could anyone appreaciate life without the contrast of death? It's like trying to appreacite your vision or hearing, when you don't have the contrast of blindness or deafness. The world is made of polar opposites, that is the way things are.
Live with it. But don't expect the rest of the world to espouse immortality, because frankly, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
And to go back to the earlier question of "would you feel that way if it was your child?". Back at you, guys, what will you feel, if it was your child, and the only way you could access that treatment was to pay out much more money than you will ever see in your lifetime? There is no point indeveloping these technologies if they are out of reach of the common person who hypothetically could benefit from them. If cloning and stem cell research are permitted, let alone encouraged, that is what will happen. The bad guys will have extra ammo, the rich and powerful will have a tool to make them more rich and powerful, and the suckers with dying kids will be more heartbroken, because the kids *could* be saved, but won't be, because the cost is too great,.