Federal Court Rules Obama Stem Cell Guidelines Run Afoul of the Law

Reuters reports that a judge has ruled Obama's embryonic stem-cell policy runs afoul of the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which bans federal funding for killing human embryos:

A U.S. district court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama administration's new guidelines on the sensitive issue.

The court ruled in favor of a suit filed in June by researchers who said human embryonic stem cell research involved the destruction of human embryos.

Judge Royce Lamberth granted the injunction after finding the lawsuit would likely succeed because the guidelines violated law banning the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos.

"(Embryonic stem cell) research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed," Lamberth wrote in a 15-page ruling. The Obama administration could appeal his decision or try to rewrite the guidelines to comply with U.S. law.

Stem cells taken from adults, as opposed to stem-cells that require the destruction of human embryos, have been doing wonders as this August 2 AP story reports.

For more on Obama's stem cell policy, see Ryan T. Anderson's "Perpetuating a Needless Stem-Cell War: Obama's decision is bad ethics, bad science, and bad politics."