Stem cell funding ban upheld in the US

A U.S judge is refusing to yield to pressure to reverse a ban issued last month on funding for human embryonic stem cellresearch which the Obama administration says is putting millions of dollars of federal funding and some 1300 jobs at risk, the New York Times reports.

One of the President Obama’s first acts after taking office last year was to clear the way for much broader federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. His predecessor George W Bush was the first president to approve funding in this area, however, it was restricted to 21 cell lines already in existence to discourage more destruction of embryos.

Last year the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued guidelines for the research. This then prompted a joint legal challenge from two individuals; one an academic and the other a representative from a Washington-based biotechnology company.

Each opposed to the use of embryonic stem cells, they argued that the expansion by NIH made it harder for them to win federal funding for their own research and that it also broke existing laws preventing research resulting in the destruction of human embryos.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth agreed, an issued an injunction last month.

The Obama administration had beseeched Lamberth to lift the ban, claiming that it was placing millions of dollars of federal funding and as many as 1300 jobs at risk.

Lamberth declined the request this week saying that to do so "would flout the will of Congress" and that while lawmakers could change the statute, "this court is not free to do so."

He added, however, that projects that have already received federal funding are not affected.