I just stumbled across this Ted Talk. It's worth the watch.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/jocelyne_bloch

It looks like european surgeons found a new way to get embryonic-like stem cells. Recent webinar on Michael J Fox foundation ** informed that scientists already found a way to get embryonic stem cells from adult stem cells. They spend 10 years learning how to do it. They called IPS cells.
So now they are on the level of 90-th still trying to prove that stem cells (now IPS cells) can help PWP. 7 years ago there was discussion on TV that scientists have only a few batches of stem cells and some of them contaminated.
When Obama became president looks like nothing has changed, at least not much. And proof of concept experiments just started with IPS cells.
So with the new way to get stem cells we still have long way to go - still need to show it works in animal studies, to prove it is safe and doesn't lead to cancer (in Russia some of the rich people who could afford stem cell treatment later died of cancer, some of them famous actors who wanted to stay forever young), to go through human trials.