US judge throws out lawsuit challenging government funding of stem cell research

A federal judge is throwing out a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The lawsuit claimed the research violated a 1996 law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo. The Obama administration allows research on embryos that were culled long ago through private funding.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, chief of the federal court in Washington, last year said the lawsuit was likely to succeed and issued an injunction to block the research while the case continued. But the appeals court overturned his injunction and said the case was likely to fail.

Mr. Lamberth said in his ruling Wednesday that he was bound by the higher court's analysis and ruled in favour of the Obama administration to dismiss the case.

Source: The Globe and Mail