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Embryonic stem cell:Judge blocks U.S. funding of human embryonic stem cell research..A U.S. district judge Monday blocked the federal government from funding all research involving human embryonic stem cells on the grounds that it violates a 1996 law intended to prevent the destruction of human embryos.

The ruling came in the form of a preliminary injunction in a case involving two scientists who challenged the Obama administration’s stem cell funding policy, which was designed to expand federal support for the controversial research.

The Obama rules allowed the use of stem cell lines derived from frozen embryos no longer needed for fertility treatments that were donated according to strict ethical guidelines. The rules did not allow the National Institutes of Health to pay for the creation of the stem cells themselves — a process involving the dismantling of days-old human embryos that is clearly forbidden by a federal law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.


The scientists who challenged the guidelines argued that Dickey-Wicker also forbids the use of federal funds for any subsequent research on those stem cells, even if the embryos they came from had been destroyed years before.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth agreed in a 15-page ruling.

It was "the unambiguous intent of Congress to prohibit the expenditure of federal funds on ’research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed,’ " Lamberth wrote, citing language from Dickey-Wicker.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which operates the NIH, had argued that the act of creating embryonic stem cells was distinct from research that used the cells to study the development of genetic diseases or to create replacement cells that might treat conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and the paralysis that results from spinal cord injuries.

But research is a long, continuous process that can’t be partitioned into discrete pieces, Lamberth wrote. If Congress meant to prohibit funding only to specific scientific acts, it could have said so. "Congress, however, has not written the statute that way, and this Court is bound to apply the law as it is written," the ruling says.

The NIH and the White House declined to comment on the ruling Monday and referred calls to the Department of Justice.

"We’re reviewing the judge’s ruling," department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Monday evening.

Lamberth issued the injunction because the plaintiffs — James L. Sherley of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnology in Seattle — have "a strong likelihood" of winning their case at trial. In the meantime, he said the researchers and "the public interest" would suffer irreparable harm if federal tax dollars were used to study human embryonic stem cells.

"The Obama administration has attempted to skirt the law by arguing that they are only funding research after the embryos are destroyed," said Charmaine Yoest, chief executive of Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion public policy group. "That administration policy is in violation of the law."

But embryonic stem cell researchers said the decision throws the field into turmoil.

"The long-term practical impact is a massive halt to most embryonic stem cell research in the U.S.," said Dr. Irving Weissman, director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

Scientists working with embryonic stem cells said patients will also suffer by having to wait longer for science to develop new treatments and cures.

Advanced Cell Technology Inc. is using the cells to grow retinal pigment epithelium cells that restored vision in rats and mice with a rare childhood disease called Stargardt’s macular dystrophy. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company has asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to use the cells in a clinical trial. But without any prospect of federal funding, the research would be in doubt, said Dr. Robert Lanza, the company’s chief scientific officer.