Supreme Court won’t stop stem cell research
Associated Press
January 08, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday that it will not stop the government’s funding of embryonic stem cell research, which is opposed by some because the work relies on destroyed human embryos.
The high court refused to hear an appeal from two scientists who have been challenging the government funding for the work. The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this year threw out their lawsuit challenging funding for the research.
Opponents claim the National Institutes of Health has been violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo.
President Obama issued an executive order in 2009 that allowed research on stem cells taken from human embryos created by in vitro fertilization.
A federal court in Washington temporarily blocked the order in 2010 after two scientists opposed to all embryonic stem cell research — James Sherley of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, a nonprofit in Watertown, and Theresa Deisher of Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute — filed suit to block it. But the executive order was later upheld by federal courts.
Sherley conducts research on adult stem cells.
The Supreme Court made no comment in rejecting the appeal Monday.
Researchers hope one day to use stem cells in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, and other ailments.
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