The American Association of Immunologists

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Last July, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge Royce Lamberth threw out a lawsuit that would have permanently blocked federal funding for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. The ruling comes nearly one year after Judge Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking federal funding for hESC research.

In issuing summary judgment in favor of federal funding for hESC research, Judge Lamberth cited the decision earlier this year of the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which had overturned his preliminary injunction. The Appeals Court had found that the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which prohibits using federal funds for research in which a human embryo is destroyed and upon which Judge Lamberth had based his injunction, is ambiguous and had been reasonably interpreted by NIH (since the amendment was first passed in 1996) as not prohibiting funding for research involving hESCs.

It remains possible that the plaintiffs in the case will appeal the decision, potentially bringing the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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