Thanks Be to God: Federal Court Blocks Obama Policy on Taxpayer-Funded Stem Cell Research

• By Alan Sears
• Posted Aug 31, 2010
• 1 Comment »

Thanks be to God, the Alliance Defense Fund and its allies have convinced a federal judge to block – for now – an effort by the Obama administration to do an end-run around a federal law barring taxpayer funding of research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

In March 2009, President Obama rescinded former President Bush’s executive order that limited federally funded embryonic stem cell research. Earlier this year, ADF allied attorneys appeared before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of doctors opposed to the current administration’s stem cell research policy – a policy that would authorize the National Institutes of Health to fund projects that destroy human embryos. 

The District Court dismissed the case, which our attorneys, working with Samuel Casey of Advocates International, then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  That court reversed the dismissal, sending the case back to the District Court, which this time ruled in favor of ADF and its allies.  The court ruled that such research is likely to be in violation of federal law known as the “Dickey/Wicker Amendment” that prohibits federal funds from being used on research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

A day after the court order came down, the National Institutes of Health announced that grants for such human-life destroying research totaling in the tens of millions of dollars have been set aside or put on hold.

“If one step…of an ESC [embryonic stem cell] research project results in the destruction of an embryo, the entire project is precluded from receiving federal funding,” the district court’s preliminary injunction order states.  “Because ESC research requires the derivation of ESCs, ESC research is research in which an embryo is destroyed.  Accordingly, the Court concludes that, by allowing federal funding of ESC research, the Guidelines are in violation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.”

“The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments – prohibited by federal law – that destroy human life,” says ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden.  “The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that liberates Americans from paying for needless, destructive research on human embryos. No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless.

 “Experimentation on embryonic stem cells isn’t even necessary,” he adds, “because adult stem cell research has been enormously successful. In economic times like we are in now, it doesn’t make sense for the federal government to use precious taxpayer dollars for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

The fight for life isn’t over in America – it continues, day by day, in courtrooms coast to coast.  And in many cases, God is giving the victory to those who would protect and honor the sanctity of life from inception to the grave.  Please be in prayer for all those who are standing courageously today for the right of every person to live.