A federal court of appeals have overturned an injunction blocking federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Supporters say this can lead to cures of diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Larry Goldstein, the director of the stem cell program at the University of California in San Diego, explained to Al Jazeera the implications of this decision that now allows government funding for human embryonic stem cell research (see video below).
President George W. Bush had banned federal funding of stem cell research, and that ban was lifted by the Obama administration. Conservatives and members of the religious right were furious. For example, Wendy Wright of Conservative Women for America declared,
President Obama's order places the worst kind of politics above ethics. Politics driven by hype makes overblown promises, fuels the desperation of the suffering and financially benefits those seeking to strip morality from science.
In August, 2010, President Obama's lifting of the ban was challenged in federal court in a case argued by the Alliance Defense Fund. In Sherley v. Sebelius, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the research likely violated the law against federal funding of embryo destruction.
Pro-life groups are not pleased with the 2-1 appeals court decision. Life News quoted David O’Steen, Ph.D, Executive Director of National Right to Life, as saying:
Given the tremendous advances in medical research using stem cells derived from ethical sources, it is tragic that a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled to allow the Obama Administration to continue federal funding of the kind of stem cell research that requires killing human embryos. Study after study continues to show that treatments developed using stem cell research that does not require killing a living human embryo has shown far more progress than research that destroys the tiniest members of the human family. National Right to Life will continue working for the day when all unborn children, regardless of their stage of development, are protected by our laws and not subject to destruction or experimentation.
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