Supreme Court lets stand ruling allowing federally-funded embryonic stem-cell research

January 08, 2013

The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a lower court’s decision that federally-funded embryonic-stem research does not violate the Dickey-Wicker amendment.

The amendment, passed annually by Congress since the mid-1990s, forbids the use of federal funds for “the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero.”

In 2010, a federal district court, citing the Dickey-Wicker amendment, halted federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. In 2011, however, a federal appeals court ruled that the language of the amendment is “ambiguous” and that it does not apply to federally-funded research on stem-cell lines derived from human embryos that have already been destroyed.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Supreme Court allows federal stem cell research to continue (CNN)
• Stem cell dispute near end? (SCOTUS Blog)
• US bishops praise ruling on stem cell research, note ill effects of Clinton administration memo (CWN, 8/26/10)