Scientists attack court ruling against Obama's stem cell policy

[IndianaGreen]

An activist rightwint judge will cause a brain drain of scientists leaving America to freer countries where they can do their research.

Scientists attack court ruling against Obama's stem cell policy

Federal judge blocks embryo research funding in surprise blow for President

By David Usborne, US Editor

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

A judge has overturned a decision by Barack Obama to relax rules on funding US government research using human embryonic stem cells which promises to revolutionise medical science in the 21st Century.

Scientists yesterday described the judge's ruling as "an astounding blow to American biomedical research" that threw into immediate doubt tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to support research that holds out the promise of new treatments for ailments ranging from heart disease to paralysis. President Obama last year eased the limits on research placed by his predecessor, George W Bush. The judge's ruling overturning the decision appalled many leaders of the scientific community but cheered right-to-life conservatives.

"It will be incredibly disruptive," said Sean Tipton of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine yesterday. But Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council welcomed it as a "stinging rebuke to the Obama administration and its attempt to circumvent sound science and federal law".

The surprise intervention is a reminder of the still unresolved tug-of-war in the US between a medical community that is anxious to push the frontiers of stem cell research and conservative activists who have moral and religious objections to any work that tampers with "human life". As such it is only barely removed from the more familiar and equally emotionally charged debate about abortion.

District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, based his ruling on a 1996 law passed by Congress that explicitly banned the use of federal dollars for research involving the destruction of human embryos. In 2001, Mr Bush set his own course, making funding available only to 21 colonies of embryonic stem cells already in existence.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/scientists-attack-court-ruling-against-obamas-stem-cell-policy-2061176.html

[madrchsod]

1. i just realized i`m 9 months older.....

[Lindsey]

2. How in the Hell do things like this happen? You've got scientists

vrs. conservative christian activists and the conservative christian activists get a break (hopefully temporarily). Stem Cell Research is an especially important to me due to family issues. WTF?????????????????///