Scientists are very close to being able to teach the lame to walk.
The key to this is that, even if the limbs of the lame no longer function, the areas of their brain which transmit and receive the electrical impulses which control walking still function. Hence, all scientists have to do is figure out how to teach the lame to use their brain waves to control a computer hooked up to artifical limbs.
You may have read already read about a recent experiment where scientists taught a monkey to use his brain waves to cause a robot in a different continent to walk:
Monkey's Brain in US causes Robot to Walk in Japan
In other research, a man was taught to use his brain waves to control a robotic hand:
New Devices help the Paralyzed
Have you ever been to the Second Life web site? It is sort of a virtual reality online video game:
What Is Second Life
Some Japanese scientists have been able to teach a paralyzed man to use his brain waves to cause an avatar in a Second Life world to walk:
Paralyzed Man Takes a Walk
All of this has some pretty profound spiritual implications. The Seven Hermetic Laws teach that All is Vibration and that All is Mental. The Vedas and the Bhagavad-Gita teach that man is not his body and that the entire perceived world is essentially a Second Life virtual reality. And, neurophysics have proven that what our five senses perceive is, not physical reality, but electrical impulses -- i.e., energy --- i.e., vibration.
All of this marvelously leads to the idea that we really do live in an analogue to the machine world of the Matrix movies. What the aformentioned scientific research is doing to teaching man to "take the red pill".