NIH Issues New Stem Cell Research Guidelines as Obama Administration Prepares to Appeal Court Ruling
EmailABC News' Ariane de Vogue reports:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — still reeling from a District Court ruling that blocked the use of federal funds for embryonic cell research — issued new guidance last night detailing how it will comply with the Court's preliminary injunction.
Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, stunned the medical community when he issued the preliminary injunction against the federal funding saying it was in violation of a 1996 law that forbids the use of such funds when an embryo is destroyed or damaged.
As early as today, the Obama administration is set to appeal the August 23rd ruling.
According to the new NIH guidelines, any grant awards that were funded on or before August 23rd are "not affected" and "award recipients may continue to expend the funds awarded to them prior to the date of the injunction. "
However, any further activity is "hereby suspended until further notice." This means that the issuance of all pending, competing and noncompeting continuation of human embryo stem cell (hESC) research and contracts is suspended as well as all peer review of pending hESC applications. The NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry is not accepting submissions of information about stem cell lines for the purpose of establishing eligibility.
After the ruling, Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of NIH issued a deeply critical statement, saying, "The recent court ruling that halted the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research could cause irreparable damage and delay potential breakthroughs to improve care for people living with serious diseases and conditions such as spinal cord injury, diabetes, or Parkinson’s disease. The injunction threatens to stop progress in one of the most encouraging areas of biomedical research, just as scientists are gaining momentum—and squander the investment we have already made. "
-Ariane de Vogue
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Wait a minute. The court is only defending Pres. Bill Clinton’s LAW of 1996 restricting embryonic stem cell use.
(For those plugged into the Media-BorgoPlex Disinformation Programming: yeah, that’s right, Clinton’s Law. George Bush created guidelines to carefully override the ban so that some research could take place, and Dems staged their shrill OO-Lu-Lu-Lu, Be-Very-Afraid strategy.)
Why hasn’t Pres. Obama ordered his Congressionally omnipotent Pelosi-Reid to write a new bill and change that law? That would actually fix the problem they have bludgeoned the nation about for a decade.
Emptiest Suit Ever, treating us all like Rubes.
Posted by: Carol | August 31, 2010, 10:47 am 10:47 am
NoBo should just put on his thinking cap and let this ruling stand.
The reason being, if ya think about it, embryonic stem cell research is a
Waste-o-Time.
Getting Stem Cells from the person who needs the treatment is the path to the future, the path to cures across the spectrum.
If the President was smart he’d concentrate government money on normal stem cell research and forget about the embryonic stuff.
Posted by: Noz | August 31, 2010, 11:00 am 11:00 am
Anything developed by federal money is owned by the people. Not only arent we getting royalties on all the meds we funded, we’re not even getting taxes on most of them.
Posted by: Flash Override | August 31, 2010, 11:38 am 11:38 am
“Noz and Carol”…I really am looking forward to the day when “people of the mind set that you represent” are nothing more than a distant “shrill” minority. Judge Lamberth should be removed from huis duties for “shotsightedness and lack of common sense”.
Posted by: CND FOX | August 31, 2010, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
Dear CND FOX
Do some research Dude.
Common Sense dictates that Stem Cells direct from the patient is far better than dealing with all of the problems involved with Embryonic Stem Cells with different DNA. I am looking forward to the day that closed minded people such as yourself become aware and join the Human Race.
Posted by: Noz | August 31, 2010, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
These are HUMAN embryonic stem cells given for research which results in the death of the HUMAN embryos “left over” after fertlity treatments.
They are given to the researchers by their parents. Do parents own their offspring? You can’t give what you do not own.
And here I thought that one HUMAN owning another HUMAN was illegal in this country.
Posted by: IXLR8 | August 31, 2010, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
I think you all need to get educated dudes. The stem cell research does not use embryoes it is cells taken directly from the patient and from the emblical cord after the baby is born. This does not interfere with life in any way and the prospects are enormous for those who have Parkinsons disease, and other ailments. I recently read where they are experimenting with growing new lenses for eyes so people can possibly see again. Why would anyone want to stop this? We are letting the fringe people have too much say and we are sitting back allowing this. Just like the tea party people are doing…we need to stand up and fight for what we believe instead of just complaining or we will be in a serious mess. Those tea party people want to set us back 20 years..privitize social security (imagine if we had), do away with medicare, allow owners of places to refuse service to people, do away with the board of education,set back what we have accomplished over these years. Imagine if they had the say many new ideas for cancer probably would not have been able to be tested. This is serious stuff here and we need to pay attention to what is being said out there.
Posted by: talmag | September 1, 2010, 12:09 am 12:09 am