Gov’t Can Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Court Rules

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a decision throwing out a lawsuit that challenged federal funding for the research. Opponents claimed the National Institutes of Health was violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo.

But a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously agreed with a lower court judge's dismissal of the case.

Chief Judge David B. Sentelle says in the ruling that "Dickey-Wicker permits federal funding of research projects that utilize already-derived" embryonic stem cells because no "human embryo or embryos are destroyed" in such projects.