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Judge stops federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research |
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By Nancy Frazier O'Brien - Catholic News Service
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Tuesday, 24 August 2010 |
A federal judge ruled Aug. 23 that the Obama administration's guidelines for funding embryonic stem-cell research violate federal law and stopped such funding while a lawsuit against it continues.
Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia said in his 15-page ruling granting a temporary injunction
that Drs. James L. Sherley and Theresa Deisher, both adult stem-cell
researchers, had standing to challenge the guidelines because they faced
the possibility of losing funding from the National Institutes of
Health when NIH funding for embryonic stem-cell research was expanded.
The lawsuit had originally been filed on behalf of the two doctors;
Nightlight Christian Adoptions, an adoption and counseling agency that
facilitates international, domestic and embryo adoptions; embryos
themselves; two couples; and the Christian Medical Association. Lamberth
ruled in 2009 that none of the plaintiffs had legal standing, but an
appeals court overruled him only in the case of the two doctors.
The Aug. 23 ruling said the researchers' attorneys had shown that the
Dickey-Wicker amendment, approved annually since 1996 "without
substantive alteration," demonstrates that "the unambiguous intent of
Congress is to prohibit the expenditure of federal funds on 'research in
which a human embryos or embryos are destroyed.'"
"By allowing federal funding of ESC research, the guidelines are in violation of the Dickey-Wicker amendment," Lamberth wrote.
He also ruled that "the guidelines threaten the very livelihood of
plaintiffs Sherley and Deisher" because their "injury of increased
competition ... is actual and imminent."
Supporters of the Obama administration's guidelines for funding
embryonic stem-cell research have argued that no embryos will be created
and destroyed for the research since only already existing embryos
created for in vitro fertilization and later discarded would be used.
Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund,
co-counsel in the lawsuit, said the decision "is simply enforcing an
existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying
another penny for needless research on human embryos."
"Experimentation on embryonic stem cells isn't even necessary because
adult stem-cell research has been enormously successful," he added. "In
economic times like we are in now, it doesn't make sense for the federal
government to use precious taxpayer dollars for this illegal and
unethical purpose."
The Catholic Church strongly supports adult stem-cell research but
opposes any research that involves the destruction of human embryos.
Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, said in
an Aug. 23 statement that "the Obama administration has attempted to
skirt the law by arguing that they are only funding research after the
embryos are destroyed."
"Today's sensible ruling reconfirms what we already knew, that administration policy is in violation of the law," she added.
But Dr. Irving L. Weissman, director of the Stanford Institute for Stem
Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, told The New York Times that the
decision would be "devastating to the hopes of researchers and patients
who have been waiting so long for the promise of stem-cell therapies."
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