Federal Judge Says Embryonic Stem Cell Research Destroys Embryo

 Yesterday, a federal judge preliminarily enjoined a March 2009 Executive Order by President Obama removing limitations on embryonic stem cell research.   Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the NIH Guidelines which followed the Executive Order are in violation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment adopted every year since 1996 in the appropriations process in Congress.   The Dickey-Wicker amendment prohibits the use of federal funds for “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death……”

The Obama Administration argued that under the NIH guidelines, taxpayer dollars are only being used on stem cells after they have been extracted and not to destroy embryos.   The judge disagreed, saying “ESC research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed….ESC research necessarily depends upon the destruction of a human embryo.”

According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, officials at UW-Wisconsin are worried about continued research using human embryonic stem cells as NIH dollars are poured into our state for embryonic stem cell research studies.

Read entire court decision here.

Barbara Lyons