We were very happy to hear that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has come to his senses, ruling in favor of government funding of human embryonic stem cell research funding that he had halted just a year ago. This time, Judge Lamberth dismissed the legal challenge to the funding and ruled that the U.S. National Institutes of Health guidelines do not violate federal law. Of course, the Judge s ruling was essentially compelled by a ruling some months ago by the U.S.Court of Appeals directing this action.
The ruling is a triumph, in that researchers access to such stem cells will be much less problematic, allowing them to make use of the cells as they investigate treatments for numerous maladies, including spinal cord injuries, cancer, diabetes, and diseases such as Alzheimer s and Parkinson s.
It s excellent news, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. And we anticipate that there will be more and more breakthroughs in the upcoming years, propelled, to some extent, by this ruling in favor of stem cell research.