Yesterday I noted that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth blocked federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and I wanted to expand on that today. Judge Lamberth found that Barack Obama’s relaxed regulations on ESCR funding — which jumped from $40 million during the Bush administration to nearly three times that number today — violated federal statutes restricting research that depends on the destruction of human embryos. As the Wall Street Journal reported the main rational for the decision:
The government had attempted to distinguish between the destruction of embryos—for which funding remains barred—and research using already destroyed embryos. But the judge said “the two cannot be separated” and embryonic stem-cell research “necessarily depends on the destruction of a human embryo.”
The National Right to Life Committee explains the false distinction made by the Obama administration:
Operationally, the Obama Administration built a Rube Goldberg contraption which, it argued, meant its policy was in compliance. Obtaining embryonic stem cells lines–which required the death of human embryos–would be funded with private money, not public. The federal dollars would only be used to conduct subsequent research, the Administration argued.
Americans United for Life also applauded Judge Lamberth’s upholding of the law.
Today’s NRLC News & Views examines the fallout, which mostly comes down to the Obama administration appealing the decision and the National Institutes of Health announcing it would abide Judge Lamberth’s decision.
