Recently federal judge Royce Lambert issued a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from funding scientific research that uses stem cells derived from human embryos. The lawsuit was brought against the federal government by stem cell researchers who said the Obama executive order allowing federal funding for such research from the National Institutes of Health violates federal law prohibiting funding of the destruction of human embryos through scientific research.

Judge Lambert’s ruling cited the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, passed by Congress in 1996, which bars the use of federal monies for “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.” Unfortunately, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington has put on hold this injunction saying that it was not ruling on the merits of the law suit but only to give Judge Lambert “sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the emergency motion for stay.” The appellate court emphasized that its decision “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”