U.S. Judge approves federal funding for embryonic research

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJul 27 2011

Federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is now legal in the United States. Chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia Royce Lamberth has ruled on the case Sherley et al. v. Sebelius, in favor of hESC research. This overturns an existing law that prohibits the government from funding research that destroys the embryo.

Lamberth’s 38-page summary judgment puts the plaintiffs, adult stem cell researchers James Sherley and Theresa Deisher, in a difficult position should they try to appeal to the US Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. The case originated in August 2010, when US stem cell research was forced to a halt for 17 days before Lamberth ruled at that time for a preliminary injunction to temporarily suspend federal funding for hESC research. In the new ruling Lamberth says that an intervening decision made in April by the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit obliges him to find that the Dickey-Wicker amendment is ambiguous enough to allow the federal government’s biomedical research institution the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund hESC research. The wording of the Dickey-Wicker amendment prohibits federal funding for “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed.”

In his decision to allow federal funding of hESC research, Lamberth said, “While it may be true that by following the Court of Appeals’ conclusion as to the ambiguity of ‘research,’ this Court has become a grudging partner in a bout of ‘linguistic jujitsu’, such is life for a [lower] court.” “The only thing that has changed since this Court first considered the question of whether “research” in the statute is ambiguous is that the [appeals court] has made it abundantly clear that the term is ambiguous as a matter of law,” he added.

“[The ruling] ensures the science will continue to move forward without the impediment of ideologically based challenges,” said Lisa Hughes, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, in a statement.

“This ruling allows the NIH to continue funding research based on scientific merit rather than having courts influence the distribution of funds among scientific disciplines,” said Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology, in a statement. “It remains important to pursue all forms of stem cell research, including both embryonic and adult stem cell research.” Stem cells derived from embryos develop into different tissues and may lead to cures for conditions such as juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and some cancers.