Editorial: Wrong Direction on Stem Cells

Editorial: Wrong Direction on Stem Cells
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/opinion/25wed1.html?th&emc=th


In a huge overreach, a federal judge has decided that the legal interpretation that has governed federal support of embryonic stem cell research for more than a decade is invalid. If the ruling stands, it will be a serious blow to medical research.

The ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth would block President Obama’s expansion of federally funded research to include scores of new stem cell lines. It also appears to bar funding for research on the handful of lines that were approved by President George W. Bush in 2001. The Department of Justice has rightly announced that it will appeal.

Scientists hold high hopes that this research will lead to cures for devastating ailments like diabetes, Parkinson’s and spinal cord injuries. The stem cells are also useful for screening drugs to treat such diseases. Researchers who already have federal money in hand could likely continue their work. But those who need new funding for proposed or continuing research would have to find private sources or shut their experiments down.

The judge’s ruling came as he granted a preliminary injunction blocking President Obama’s 2009 executive order expanding this research to use stem cells derived from surplus embryos at fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded or frozen in perpetuity.

Although the injunction is temporary, the ruling is ominous because it means that the judge believes the two plaintiffs — scientists who do research on adult stem cells — have a “strong likelihood of success” if this issue proceeds to trial.

The case involves an obscure rider, known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, that has been attached to annual appropriations bills for the Department of Health and Human Services since 1996. It prohibits the use of federal funds to support research in which embryos are destroyed or discarded. It does not directly address research on stem cells derived from embryos, a field that developed later.

The Clinton administration and now the Obama administration drew a fine distinction: deriving the stem cells — which results in destruction of the embryos — could not be supported by the federal government but research on stem cells after they were derived with private funds could be financed.

The Bush administration also implicitly accepted this distinction by funding research on a handful of stem cell lines derived with private funds. At no time has Congress disputed this distinction or rewritten Dickey-Wicker to address stem cells directly.

Now Judge Lamberth has ruled that Dickey-Wicker prohibits funding of all research in which a human embryo is destroyed, even if the destruction occurs before the research begins. He claims that the Dickey-Wicker language “unambiguously” prohibits work on stem cells derived from embryos.

How can that be true if the federal government has interpreted it the other way for 11 years and Congress has not disputed that interpretation? If there is any ambiguity, the courts typically give deference to agency interpretations.

The judge also finds that the two adult stem cell researchers who brought the case would suffer imminent and irreparable harm without the injunction because they would have to compete with embryonic stem cell researchers for research funds. That is absurd. Adult stem cell research is funded far more generously than work with embryonic stem cells. And there is no firm limit on the amount of money that can be spent on each.

Scientists are hopeful that a relatively new field of research in which mature skin cells are reprogrammed back to an embryonic-like state will ultimately make it unnecessary to destroy embryos, but that day is not here. We need to pursue all avenues vigorously.

The Justice Department should quickly press its appeal. And Congress should settle this issue once and for all — by passing legislation that ensures continued federal funding to support research on stem cells derived from human embryos.