What is 'aging', if it isn't the changes that happen over long periods of time, like developing cancers, heart disease, and degenerative diseases?
Aging is the accumulation of low level damage, like junk in your cells and the space between them, and telomere shortening which eventually cause cancer, heart disease, and degenerative diseases. The SENS approach is to repair the low level damage before it can accumulate to the point of causing noticeable symptoms.
These changes are exactly what anti-aging research is seeking to prevent, so I'm not sure of the point of your question.
Because the article was advocating treating aging, instead of cancer, heart disease, and other degenerative diseases.
If your first thought is “a cure for cancer” or “a cure for heart disease,” think again. Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer of SENS Foundation and the world’s most prominent advocate of anti-aging research, argues that it makes no sense to spend the vast majority of our medical resources on trying to combat the diseases of aging without tackling aging itself.
I'm thinking it's the difference between prevention and treating symptoms. It's more like "we will cure the common cold" and less like "we will make it so you don't suffer the stuffy nose while the virus wreaks havoc on your body".
Peter Singer, makes a (refreshingly simple) ethical case for anti-aging research, and endorses increased funding.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-ethics-of-anti-aging-by-peter-singer