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Stem Court Ruling a Decisive Victory for NIH
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| Contributor | kal |
| Last Edited | kal Jul 30, 2011 06:10am |
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| Category | Legal Ruling |
| News Date | Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The biomedical research community is elated by today's federal court decision to throw out a lawsuit that threatened to shut down federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge Royce Lamberth, who earlier had ruled against the National Institutes of Health, this time came down on NIH's side in several key arguments in the case.
The plaintiffs expect to appeal, and could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. But their chances seem slim given that the 38-page opinion strongly favors NIH, say some who have read it. "This was a pretty slam dunk decision even though Lamberth clearly did it a bit grudgingly," says Anthony Mazzaschi of the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C. "They can keep some uncertainty alive for another 2 to 3 years, but [their suit] is on life support," says Stanford University law professor Hank Greely.
Harvard Medical School stem cell researcher George Daley is more cautious. "I hope we're done for now, but nothing surprises me anymore," Daley says.
The suit, Sherley v. Sebelius, was filed in 2009 by groups that included two scientists who study adult stem cells. They argued that NIH's July guidelines implementing an order from President Barack Obama to lift limits on hESC research violated the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a law that prohibits federal funding for "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed."
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