Dr. Shannon believes it is an essential stepping stone to the cure. Techniques will be refined and we will learn things about the brain. She believes there will be something soon that pre-symptomatic individuals will be able to take to prevent the onset of HD symptoms. However, there are still 25,000 people with symptoms now who will need something to restore them to a full quality of life. Unless a compelling therapy is developed for those who have the gene, there is no reason to test children.
Brain tissue provides evidence that reinforces what is done in the lab.
It is also important for people who are not at-risk to donate brain tissue for use as control. When a man passes on Huntington's, he frequently passes on a more severe case than what he had. They want to look at the sperm to find out why some have more repeats in the Huntington's gene. It was not illegal to do fetal transplants before, but it was illegal to get federal funding. Clinton reversed that.