Stem cell research advocates undeterred by funding ban

After many years of advocating for stem cell research, Brooke Ellison, 31, of Stony Brook, is no stranger to the ever-changing political fortunes of such a hot-button issue.

So she isn't discouraged, she said, by a federal judge's decision Monday to ban government funding of human embryonic stem cell research, based on a 1996 law that prohibits federal funding of research that destroys human embryos.

"I feel determined," said Ellison, who was paralyzed in a car accident in 1990. She went on to found the nonprofit Brooke Ellison Project to support stem cell research, which could some day cure spinal paralysis like hers. "Stem cell research is our most tangible and pressing hope," she added.

Ellison joined Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Friday to publicly demand Congress quickly restore federal funding for what proponents call the "gold standard" for possible cures to diseases.

On Monday in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth issued a temporary halt to all embryonic stem cell research using federal funds, citing the 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment passed by Congress prohibiting the funding of research that destroys human embryos.

Lamberth said the law extends to embryonic stem cell research, which uses embryos from fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded.

Though scientists could not use federal funding in the actual destruction of the fetuses, Lamberth ruled that the government could also not fund the research conducted on those fetuses afterward. His decision overturns President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order to expand the funding guidelines, set by the George W. Bush administration.

The ruling halts all work in the field, a move that was "an absolute shock" to the scientific community, said Dr. Bruce Stillman, president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Stillman said the decision makes America the only country in the world to ban this kind of research. The Cold Spring Harbor facility has three labs that will be hurt by the loss of funding, he said.

Israel vowed to bring the issue back before Congress when the House session begins Sept. 14, in hopes of creating permanent legislation to provide funding. "Every day that we waste sets us back," Israel said.

One opponent hailed Lamberth's ruling as a logical interpretation of the original congressional law.

"I think for the millions of Americans who do not think federal tax dollars should be involved in the destruction of human embryos for research, they can look at this as a good thing," said the Rev. Thomas Berg, director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person and member of the Empire State Stem Cell Board.

Berg said results from work on other types of stem cells such as adult stem cells were very promising. "I would disagree with assertions that this is going to devastate stem cell science," he said.