The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a stay late this afternoon, allowing US government funding of human embryonic stem cell research to continue unimpeded while a lawsuit challenging its legality works its way through the courts.
In a one-page pronouncement, the court, where a three-judge panel heard oral arguments on the matter yesterday, dissolved a temporary stay it had issued on 9 September and replaced it with a long-term stay. That stay will now remain in place until the appeals court decides on whether or not to overturn a 23 August injunction by a lower court, which had halted federal funding for the research. The appeals court also said it would expedite the appeal process.
The government’s lawyers, the appeals court wrote, “have satisfied the standards required for a stay pending appeal.” Those standards included demonstrating irreparable harm if the injunction was not stayed, and establishing the government’s likelihood of prevailing when the case is heard on its merits.
“This is a good step in the right direction,” says Meri Firpo, a stem cell researcher at the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute. “But ultimately we are going to have to get some kind of permanent decision before we can really plan long term and make sure that our funding is secure.”
“I’m glad that the court saw the wisdom in staying the injunction,” adds Sean Morrison, the director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “This injunction has been, and would continue to be, very damaging to the field.”
Tony Mazzaschi, the senior director of scientific affairs at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C., says that his group is “very grateful” to the court for understanding the serious harm the injunction would cause to both intramural and extramural research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “We look forward to a full airing of the legal issues involved,” he adds.
In a statement issued this evening, Senator Tom Harkin (Democrat-Iowa), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds NIH, said, “While we celebrate the fact that the tide is turning in our favor, we realize that we must continue to fight for stem cell research. This stay gives us renewed hope that we will ultimately secure a legal ruling on the merits – one that will protect the ability of scientists to continue to explore the promise of stem cell research.”
Publicists for the plaintiffs said a statement would be forthcoming shortly. Watch this space for further developments.
UPDATE: This evening, Sam Casey, a lawyer with Advocates International in Fairfax, Virginia, who is part of the plaintiffs’ legal team, said in a statement that the team is “disappointed” in today’s ruling by the appeals court. However, he added, “We are confident in our case and expect the court will ultimately end taxpayer funding of unlawful, unnecessary and unethical experiments on living human embryos.”
An overview of the case is available here. For full coverage of this ongoing story see Nature’s Stem Cell Injunction news special.