Update
On
Wednesday 27 July 2011 Royce Lamberth, the chief judge of the
US District Court for the District of Columbia has dismissed the lawsuit
of the two plaintiffs against the government to block federal funding
for human embryonic stem cell research. US researchers working on human
embryonic stem cells can breathe a sigh of relief because at least for
the time being, this case is over. The plaintiffs do have some ability
to appeal and will no doubt be exploring all options.
Read more on the
Nature News Blog.
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Update
On Friday
29 April 2011, a US appeals court has overturned a
judge's ruling that banned taxpayer funding for stem cell research. The
court ruled that efforts to block federal funding for human embryonic
stem cell research were unlikely to win legal battles and overturned a
judge's earlier ban on funding. The ruling means that, for now, federal
agencies such as the NIH can continue funding embryonic stem cell
research.
The saga is not quite over yet. While the appeals court has made a
decision, US researchers still have to wait for the district court to
make its final ruling. After that it is likely that the case will make
its way to the supreme court.
For more detail and a nice overview visit the
CIRM Research Results blog or read the court ruling
here.
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Update
On
09 September 2010 hESC funding resumed after a US Appeals
Court suspended the ban. The court said that the government can keep
funding embryonic stem cell research, pending a full appeal of the case.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it will present further
arguments supporting the research to the court in coming weeks. The
judges gave both sides until September 20 to file written arguments.
The next stage in this battle will be on the
27 September 2010 when
both sides will be asked to present a 15 minute oral argument to a
three member panel of the appeals court. This panel expects to decide
soon after to either allow a longer-term appeal of Judge Lambeth’s
injuction, or deny it, in which case hESC research will be halted again.
See commentary from the
New York Times and
Science Insider.
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Originally posted
24 August 2010
Australian scientists have woken this morning to the rather dramatic news that an American judge has placed a temporary injunction on US federal funding for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research.
This is pending the outcome of a lawsuit contending that such research is illegal because it destroys embryos. Federal funding for hESC research was famously restricted by President George Bush under his administration and then
overturned in March 2009 after President Obama came to power. In his ruling the judge said that all hESC research violates a law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment which makes it illegal for tax dollars to be used to fund research that involves the destruction of a human embryo.
According to an article on
Nature, the NIH had no comment on the turn of events this afternoon and the funding agency was deferring comment to the Department of Justice.
hESC research has been legal in Australia since 2002 under licence from the National Health and Medical Research Council. More information on the regulation of stem cell research in Australia can be found in
Fact Sheet 6.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has also released a
statement.