Appeals court restores federal funding of stem cell research

The New York Times: Court Lets U.S. Resume Paying For Embryo Study
Government financing of human embryonic stem cell research can continue, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The decision was an important victory for the Obama administration in a legal battle that is far from over. The 2-to-1 ruling, by a panel of judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, blocks a lower-court decision last August holding that such research is illegal under a law that bans public spending on research in which human embryos are damaged or destroyed (Harris, 4/29).

The Boston Globe: Court Reverses Stem Cell Ruling
"I am pretty excited about it,'" said Dr. Leonard Zon, director of the stem cell program at Children's Hospital Boston. "The issue when you're a stem cell researcher is, there's a certain level of uncertainty about whether the governmental and legal mechanisms will be in place so you can fund your research. This is not the final word but an indirect way of saying the case probably has little merit." The White House released a statement praising the decision, as did the National Institutes of Health (Kowalczyk, 4/30).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.