Stem Cell Funding Ban Lifted

The Wall Street Journal reports:

WASHINGTON—A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a trial judge's preliminary injunction that blocked government funding of research involving human embryonic stem cells, a significant legal victory for the Obama administration.

The U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, said the National Institutes of Health reasonably concluded that government funding for embryonic stem-cell research is not prohibited by a 1996 law that bars the use of federal money for research in which an embryo is destroyed.

One of President Barack Obama's first acts on science policy after taking office was to take down barriers to stem-cell research set up by President George W. Bush in August 2001.

While Mr. Bush had limited research on embryonic stem cells to a small number of then-existing cell lines, Mr. Obama in March 2009 opened up federal funding more broadly.

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