for better or for worse, this is where the rubber meets the road. As somebody said, "May you live in interesting times".

This is when one scientist says "Inn-terrestink, would you not say? Verrry, verrry inn-terrestink." And then everything depends on whether or not the second scientist replies. "But verry schtoopid".

My own amateur guess is that stem cell treatments (using your own cells) will revolutionize medicine, and basically cure a whole big pile of diseases.... but it may take many years to overcome nature's reluctance to give us a break on this.
But even if it comes too late for some of us, it is indeed warming to contemplate the day when many evil diseases will wash away and eventually be scarcely remembered by the human race.
It will happen, or this I feel sure.