I've tried, really I have, to restrain myself and not be a bore but.....

The research being done is not to manipulate the existing genetic material of ALS patients but to introduce genetic material from an outside source to repair damage.

There is a religious cult in America that believe all human life was started by aliens using cloning technology. They are a huge organisation with enormous funding and scientific research facilities. They have now been given skin cells taken from a two year old girl who died several years ago and are being paid to clone her "twin" by her parents.
If you have the technology people will have very different ideas of what is a good use for it.
My fears are based on the speed that this has slipped into normal life with little or no information on the consequences. We had gentically engineered food in our shops for months before we were told about it and then it took many more months for any sort of labelling to inform us what foods were natural and which were engineered. I want to choose and if the authorities are not giving me a choice with what I eat I am less than trustful of their regulating abilities.