Stunned and disappointed officials of US President Barack Obama’s administration said on Tuesday they would appeal a US federal court ruling that temporarily barred US federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
The administration will ask the US Court of Appeals to lift the preliminary injunction issued on Monday, US Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Current research worth about US$131 million can go ahead, but research proposals being evaluated for potential funding will be “pulled out of the stack,” National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins said.
US Senator Tom Harkin, who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he was calling a hearing for today on the matter.
“This ruling should be appealed and I fully believe that it will be overturned,” Harkin said in a statement. “Embryonic stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans who are suffering from debilitating and life-threatening diseases, and it must be allowed to proceed.”
Allowing federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research was one of the first acts of newly elected Obama last year, and exultant scientists applauded when he overturned predecessor George W. Bush’s limitations on the science.
Supporters of human embryonic stem cell research say it is vital to carry it out alongside other types of stem cell research to understand how to transform cells into desired tissue types and treat diseases ranging from juvenile diabetes to blindness.
Opponents say it is wrong to destroy human embryos, even days-old embryos to be discarded from fertility clinics.
In his ruling, Judge Royce Lamberth said legislation tacked onto the Health and Human Services spending authorization every year, called the Dickey-Wicker amendment, bans federal funding of all such research.
“Frankly, I was stunned, as was virtually everyone at NIH, by the judicial decision yesterday,” Collins told reporters in a telephone briefing.
“Human embryonic stem cell research, done responsibly and ethically, is one of the most exciting opportunities to come along in a long time, and in just the last year, we have made so much progress in getting this area expanded,” Collins said.
Sean Tipton of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which supports all areas of stem cell research, said scientists would struggle to get money from private sources. States fund and encourage embryonic stem cell research, but cannot come close to matching the National Institute of Health’s purse.
“We are calling for an immediate end to Dickey-Wicker,” Tipton said in a telephone interview. “Do that and your problem is solved.”
“This could be a great outcome for research freedom and for allowing scientists instead of politicians to make decisions,” he said.
The suit was filed by two researchers who work with so-called adult stem cells, which are a different kind of stem cell found throughout the body, which are also considered promising.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
RSS