Washington D.C., Sep 30, 2010 / 08:17 am
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Tuesday overturned a federal court’s ban on taxpayer funding for human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).
In August U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the funding of the research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) should be suspended while its legality was challenged. A coalition of opponents says the funding violates federal law barring funding for research which destroys human embryos.
Government lawyers said dozens of research projects would be ruined if the ban continued, the BBC reports.
Judge Lamberth’s ruling had already been temporarily suspended but Tuesday’s decision overrules it until a final decision is reached.