Judge Blocks Obama's Stem-Cell Program

Hope you weren’t banking on a cure for a genetic disorder anytime soon: A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Obama’s plan to expand stem-cell research. The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth says that the plaintiff, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, should be allowed to air its argument in court. The nonprofit NCA argues that the new funding for stem-cell research will decrease the number of embryos available for adoption. Lamberth said the two doctors spearheading the lawsuit, adult stem cell researchers James Sherley of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnlogy, would thus see their livelihoods threatened, and claimed the new government guidelines may stand in violation of a law that prohibits federal funds being used for research in which human embryos are destroyed. Nightlight, which began in 1997, is designed to help people adopt human embryos that are being stored in fertilization clinics.