Good news from the federal judiciary:
President Barack Obama’s administration can fund embryonic stem-cell research while it appeals a decision banning government support for any activity using cells taken from human embryos, an appeals court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today put on hold a ruling by District Judge Royce Lamberth during its review of the ban. The Justice Department argued that the judge’s decision would cause irreparable harm to researchers, taxpayers and scientific progress....
“The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the emergency motion for stay and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the appeals court wrote in its decision....
“Disruption of ongoing research will result in irreparable setbacks and, in many cases, may destroy a project altogether,” attorneys for the U.S. wrote.
Researchers are unsure how to proceed after the appeals court ruling, said Ted Dawson, the co-director at Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Cell Engineering in Baltimore.
“We’re very happy with the decision but we’re in limbo,” Dawson said. Scientists working in this area are asking themselves, “Is this something I want to continue to stake my career on?” he said.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and other institutions are continuing their work using federal dollars they already have, in addition to money from state agencies and philanthropies, Dawson said. Because of the ruling, “we have a little bit of time to make contingency plans,” he said.
The limbo still exists, but researchers at least now have legal standing to continue their work. The court set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the plaintiffs, two adult stem cell researchers, to file their response to the government's emergency motion and Sept. 20 for the government to reply to that response.