Stem Cell Research Guidelines Blocked

Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction blocking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 7/7/09 Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research.   These Guidelines were developed to administer President Obama’s 3/9/09 Executive Order No. 13,505, which, notably, broadened the support for embryonic stem cell (ESC) research.  Plaintiffs, James L. Sherely, MD, et al., who work with adult stem cells, sought “an order (a) declaring that the Guidelines are contrary to law, were promulgated without observing the procedures required by law, and constitute arbitrary and capricious agency action; and (b) enjoining [d]efendants from applying the Guidelines or otherwise funding research involving the destruction of human embryonic stem cells.”   The Court found (a) “a strong likelihood of success that the Guidelines violate the Dickey-Wicker Amendment …”; (b) “the Guidelines, by allowing federal funding of ESC research, increases competition for NIH’s limited resources” and “is an actual, imminent injury” to the plaintiffs”; and (c) “the will of Congress, as expressed in the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, is to prohibit federal funding of research in which human embryos are destroyed” thus “it is in the public interest to enjoin defendants from implementing the Guidelines because the Guidelines allow federal funding of ESC research, which involves the destruction of embryos.”

The Dickey-Wicker Amendment was originally a rider to P.L. 104-99 (1/26/96; see Section 128), and has been continuously added to various appropriations acts since 1996.   The current language is in P.L. 111-8 (Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009; 3/11/09; see Section 509).