WASHINGTON - 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 human embryos. 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 an embryo. But a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously agreed with a lower court judge's dismissal of the case. This is the second time the appeals court has said that the challenged federal funding of embryonic stem cell research was permissible. "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 … Continue reading →

The US government can continue funding embryonic stem cell research, after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court's decision to throw out a lawsuit challenging federal funding for the research. According to the Associated Press, opponents of stem cell research had claimed that the National Institute of Health was violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law, which prevents US funding for any work that could harm an embryo. 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, AP reported. Dr. Francis Collins, the director of NIH, said in a statement that they would "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 this research. The lawsuit was filed in 2009 by Dr. James Sherley of Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnology in Seattle, NBC News reported. The two use adult stem cells for research, but oppose the use of embryonic stem cells, stem … Continue reading →

By Maggie Fox, NBC News The federal government may continue to pay for controversial human embryonic stem cell research, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The three-judge panel says the government has correctly interpreted a law that bans the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos for research. The ruling is unlikely to put the issue to rest and one of the judges pleaded for Congress to make clear what the government should and should not be able to do. The hard-to-understand case pits science against mostly religious arguments against using embryos in medical research. It's even more confusing because there are so many differenlt types of cells called stem cells. Dr. James Sherley of Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnology in Seattle, who both do research using adult stem cells and oppose the use of human embryonic stem cells, sued in 2009. They said federal guidelines violate the law and would harm their work by increasing competition for limited federal funding. Its been back and forth in the federal courts since then, and Sherley has vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The embryonic stem cells at issue are … Continue reading →

Stem-cell scientist Alan Trounson in San Francisco. Photo: Hugh Hamilton INSTEAD of his former daily commute from Ashburton to Clayton, Australia's leading stem-cell scientist, Alan Trounson, walks to his office on San Francisco's waterfront, where he is head of the $3 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the world's best-funded centre for embryonic research. It is a bustling stretch of this beautiful bayside city, where trolley cars squeak as noisily as a Melbourne tram as they travel beneath the Bay Bridge and in summer baseball fans invade in their thousands, heading to the San Francisco Giants' home ballpark just across the road from Trounson's home. But the former Monash University professor doesn't hear much of the din; he's too focused on his work. An ocean and decades away from his days in Melbourne as a pioneer of in vitro fertilisation, the 66-year-old scientist has learnt many things from working in a laboratory - chief among them is to simply stay focused. Last month the world's five-millionth IVF baby was born; something that may not have occurred had Trounson and early IVF scientists been sidelined by their detractors. Among them was the religious right, which claimed they were attempting to … Continue reading →