David, I’m glad you posted on this important and worrisome development.

From what I understand while the Obama funding rules may not have been overturned, but they are frozen. Many fellow scientists I have talked to in the stem cell field are not so sure how NIH will decide to proceed and it may freeze all funding for hESC lines approved by Obama, a major blow to stem cell research.

Paul Knoepfler
http://www.ipscell.com

This is plainly faith-based decision. It goes without saying that Judge Lamberth is a Reagan appointee, former FISA judge, who has been behind some of the notorious habeas corpus decisions against Guantanamo inmates. He also sent Iran a bill for $2.65 billion for every American killed in Lebanon, under the dubious theory that Hezbollah is completely controlled by Iran.

In other news, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction against the law of gravity. Plaintiffs had argued it made them feel unnecessarily heavy. Another ruled in favor of the estate of King Canute saying the tide could not come in until further notice. In yet another suit, the judge let BP’s case go forward in which it claimed the recent oil spill was actually the Gulf of Mexico’s fault and seeking compensation for lost earnings and for the emotional distress caused to its then CEO Tony Hayward.

According to the TPM article I read earlier, this ruling came about because of some obscure amendment that keeps getting renewed every year:

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth — who initially threw the suit out, but found it in his court again when an appeals court ruled the plaintiffs did have grounds to sue — today ordered that the NIH and Department of Health and Human Services are “enjoined from implementing, applying, or taking any action whatsoever” as it relates to the guidelines, “or otherwise funding research involving human embryonic stem cells as contemplated in the guidelines.”

Key to Lamberth’s ruling is Congress’ Dickey-Wicker amendment, which made federal funding illegal to begin with.

Why “obscure”? Many of the experts TPM called about the case hadn’t heard of this amendment.

So, as is so often the case, we appear to have our congressional “leadership” to thank for this continuing insanity.

UPDATE: I’d almost think the name of that amendment was a joke.

This is absurd. What law is being broken?

Why is America retreating in every scientific endeavor?

…Judge Lamberth is a Reagan appointee

*heh* As I was reading it, I could’ve sworn it woulda been a Turd Blossom special…! ;-)

See my earlier comment. Here’s some background.

isnt ancient creepy Nancy FOR stem cells?

cause frozen FETI are people,Muslims not so much!oops,i mean embryos

“. . .new guidelines would decrease the number of human embryos available for adoption.”

Oh goody goody. I can haz embryo to adopt now?

The RW Fundies are busy revising the history/science books… Look at Tejas, and, now that same fervor is being applied in Israel…

Israel tells schools not to teach nakba

Government officials warned Israeli teachers last week not to cooperate with a civic group that seeks to educate Israelis about how the Palestinians view the loss of their homeland and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Israel’s education ministry issued the advisory after Zochrot – a Jewish group that seeks to raise awareness among Israeli Jews of the events of 1948, referred to as the “nakba” by Palestinians – organised a workshop for primary school teachers.

The ministry said the course had not been approved and told teachers not to participate in Zochrot-sponsored activities during the coming school year.

Maybe a corporation could adopt a lonely embryo or two.

They can haz a whole fambly.

Propaganda is the opiate of corrupt states. We used to be contemptuous of the USSR which rewrote its history as needed to conform to changes in its power structure. Now revisionist history has become a commonplace.

lol!!!,YALE is waiting

amazing ,no…its been totaly adopted

how about these?

http://www.thenewparentsguide.com/images/AB%20creme%20dream%20bassinets.jpg

or a GUCCI carrier?

http://pursuitist.com/wp-content/uploads/guccicarrier.jpg

A bit more than 11 months ago we were told of this – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/14/obamas-stem-cell-policy-reversed-legislative-restrictions/

The Obama HHS spending bill in 2009 baned federal funding of any “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death,” language that pertains to creation of new stem cell lines, so as to follow the original Dickey-Wicker amendment that has been in spending bills ever since the GOP got control of Congress and put the provision in the spending for FY1997.

What Obama has changed is the ending of Bush’s executive policy that had additionally limited researchers receiving federal aid to just 21 stem cell lines created before August 2001. Obama’s reversal allows them to use hundreds of other stem cell lines already in existence.

But until the Democrats pass the change pushed by Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Mike Castle, R-Del. (which is just not having the Dickey language attached to a spending bill) the Dickey-Wicker provision will still prevent federally backed researches from creating their own stem cell lines, blocking their access to hundreds of new embryonic stem cell lines, usually from embryos left over from fertility treatments that would otherwise be discarded.

SEC. 509. (a) None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for–

(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or
(2) 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 under 45 CFR 46.208(a)(2) and Section 498(b) of the Public Health Service Act [1](42 U.S.C. 289g(b)) (Title 42, Section 289g(b), United States Code).

(b) For purposes of this section, the term “human embryo or embryos” includes any organism, not protected as a human subject under 45 CFR 46 (the Human Subject Protection regulations) . . . that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes (sperm or egg) or human diploid cells (cells that have two sets of chromosomes, such as somatic cells).

The Democratic Party controls Congress – you’d think they could pass an HHS funding bill without the Dickey wording – but not if “pro-choice” Obama has sold that option away for a corporate contribution for the 2012 campaign.

Thanks for that summary. Looks like my guess @ 4 was right, Congress (and Obama) could have fixed this. Blaming a federal judge for issuing an injunction that appears to support what looks to be the intent of Congress strikes me as a bit over the top.

After having read the decision, and learning more about Judge Lamberth, I will change my previous opinion a bit.

1) I don’t know if Lamberth is a christian fundamentalist–although he is certainly not a corporate Republican–so what else could he be?

2) Lamberth is right that Obama’s executive order allowing stem cell research is based on a debatable interpretation of the law.

3) The appeals court was wrong that the two plaintiffs in the case have standing to sue.

4) Lamberth was wrong to issue a temporary injunction because there is no poof that the plaintiffs, or anyone else, face irreparable harm.

Thanks for the picture. I wanted to see what a Creaton looks like.

Urban dictionary:

“A person who is a TOTAL idiot and a pain in the ASS”.

When the Russians launched Sputnik, it sent Americans into a panic. In response, Congress allocated funds to enhancing math and science education in the public schools. I was a beneficiary of this funding which spawned pilot programs that became the ubiquitous AP programs present in most high schools today. And of course, it provoked our program to put a man on the moon, a remarkable engineering accomplishment.

The demonization of science extends well beyond simply stem cell research. The best thing that could happen to science in America would be for another country, particularly a non-christian developing country like Korea or India, to develop a significant scientific advance, preferably in medicine, like a cure for diabetes or spinal cord injury from stem cells. Our competitive nature and desire to be “number 1″ would soon overcome the forces of darkness.

Even as some would try to ban the advances, some senator or TV evangelist would be sneaking off under cover of darkness to seek treatment for a sick wife or a child or most cynically, themselves.

Beyond showing that Dems/Obama are cowards to not have removed the language from the 2009 HHS funding bill, I am coming to the conclusion one can take a “who cares” attitude: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816142127.htm

Scientists Successfully Use Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat Parkinson’s in Rodents

… human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) validates a scalable protocol … “These cells are reprogrammed from existing cells and represent a promising unlimited source for generating patient-specific cells for biomedical research and personalized medicine,” ….”Human iPSCs may provide an end-run around immuno-rejection issues surrounding the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to treat disease,” …. “They may also solve bioethical issues surrounding hESCs.”…”Both our functional studies and genomic analyses suggest that overall iPSCs are largely similar to hESCs,” said Zeng.

Not quite the same, not as effective, as using embryos, so the Court has slowed the improvement in human health via stem cells – but it has not stopped it.

Good, let the countries with first rate health care develop the therapies. It will be cheaper for us in the long run.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment

I can suggest a constitutional amendment to solve this kind of problem.