US seeks stay of court-ordered ban on stemcell research

The Obama administration formally asked a federal court Tuesday to allow federally-funded embryonic stem cell research to go forward while they appeal an adverse ruling on the matter.

Judge Royce Lamberth handed down a decision August 23 that effectively reimposed an eight-year-old ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which President Barack Obama lifted soon after coming to office.

The administration appealed the ruling in a filing Tuesday, and at the same time requested that the judge's order not go into effect before the appeals court can rule.

The request was "to avoid terminating research projects midstream, invalidating results in process and impeding or negating years of scientific progress toward finding new treatments for devastating illnesses such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and blindness," the filing said.

Blocking the federally-funded research causes "irrevocable harm to the millions of extremely sick and injured people who stand to benefit from continuing hESC (human embryonic stemcell) research," it said.

"It is highly doubtful that plaintiff's economic or professional interests will be affected in any way if the preliminary injunction is stayed," it said.

A group that included Christian organizations challenged the administration's lifting of the ban on grounds that a 1996 law prohibits federal funding for research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

Embryonic stem cells, so named because they are capable of reproducing themselves and transforming into any other type of cell in the human body, are taken from human embryos in their first days of development.

Scientists hope to use them to develop into new cells that can be used to regrow damaged human organisms, and to find new treatments for diseases like Parkinson's, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.