U.S. Appeals Court: Government Can Fund Stem Cell Research

August 26, 2012

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

A three-judge panel at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to order the Obama administration to stop funding embryonic stem cell research on Friday.

This ruling comes despite complaints that the research is dependent on destroyed human embryos. Opponents to the research claim the National Institutes for Health (NIH) is violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law which prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo.

The judges were unanimous, however, in upholding the lower courts decision to throw out the case entirely. This is the second time the appeals court has said that federal funding of stem cell research was permissible.

Dickey-Wicker permits federal funding of research projects that utilize already-derived ESCs [Embryonic Stem Cells] 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 the issue.

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said in a statement, 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 this research.

Maladies that researchers believe can be someday cured by this kind of research include spinal cord injuries, diabetes, heart disease, bone marrow diseases, and Parkinsons disease.

Those opposed to the research object because the cells were obtained from destroyed human embryos. Current research is using cells culled long ago, opponents fear that success in these experiments would drive new embryonic destruction.

Those who support the research assert that most research cells come from extra embryos that fertility clinics would have discarded anyway.

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U.S. Appeals Court: Government Can Fund Stem Cell Research