AS LEGAL rulings go, it is confusing in the extreme. In granting an injunction to two scientists who oppose widening US government funding for research on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), Judge Royce Lamberth wrote of 鈥渟imply preserving the status quo鈥�. Yet his ruling could block all federally funded research on hESCs, through a controversial interpretation of a 1996 law that prevents federal money being used to destroy human embryos (see 鈥淐ourt freezes federal funding for embryonic stem cells鈥�).
The law clearly rules out federal funds being used to create new hESC cell lines, but Lamberth argues that even research on older cell lines would be covered, as embryos were destroyed to create them. Follow this logic to its conclusion and any project relying on data from hESCs would be out of bounds. This flawed ruling should not stand.