Court: Gov't can fund embryonic stem cell research – Fri, 24 Aug 2012 PST

August 24, 2012 in Health

Jesse J. Holland Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) A federal appeals court on Friday refused to order the Obama administration to stop funding embryonic stem cell research, despite complaints the work relies on destroyed humanembryos.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court decision throwing out a lawsuit that challenged federal funding for the research, which is used in pursuit of cures to deadly diseases. Opponents claimed the National Institutes of Health was violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms anembryo.

But a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously agreed with a lower court judges dismissal of the case. This is the second time the appeals court has said that the challenged federal funding of embryonic stem cell research waspermissible.

Dickey-Wicker permits federal funding of research projects that utilize already-derived ESCs which are not themselves embryos because no human embryo or embryos are destroyed in such projects, Chief Judge David B. Sentelle said in the ruling, adding that the plaintiffs made the same argument the last the time the court reviewed the issue. Therefore, unless they have established some extraordinary circumstance, the law of the case is established and we will not revisit theissue.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement after the decision, NIH will continue to move forward, conducting and funding research in this very promising area of science. The ruling affirms our commitment to the patients afflicted by diseases that may one day be treatable using the results of thisresearch.

Researchers hope one day to use stem cells in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinsons disease and other ailments. Opponents of the research object because the cells were obtained from destroyed human embryos. Though current research is using cells culled long ago, opponents say they also fear research success would spur new embryo destruction. Proponents say the research cells come mostly from extra embryos that fertility clinics would have discardedanyway.

The lawsuit was filed in 2009 by two scientists who argued that Obamas expansion jeopardized their ability to win government funding for research using adult stem cells ones that have already matured to create specific types of tissues because it will mean extracompetition.

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Court: Gov't can fund embryonic stem cell research - Fri, 24 Aug 2012 PST