AUL President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest called the decision by the Department of Justice to appeal an injunction of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research “not surprising, but not the biggest story here.”“Adult stem cell research has yielded incredible, life-giving results for people with many diseases and disabilities, while the stem cell lines created by destroying unborn children has provided little hope for those suffering,” Yoest noted. “Media reports indicate that more than $100 million in federal funds has been wasted on embryonic stem cell research in the last year alone. With our tax dollars, we should be investing in the adult stem cell research that works now and holds the greatest long-term promise for all Americans.”
Federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued the injunction against the government’s use of tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research based on a reading of the Dickey-Wicker amendment. That 1996 law prohibits federal funding for research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed and was the foundation for legal challenge when Obama signed his 2009 order which allowed embryos to be destroyed in research paid for with tax dollars.
