NIH head Collins says that a ban will be a disaster

The US Justice Department has requested District
Judge Royce
Lamberth to delay the implementation of his decision banning federal
funding for human embryonic stem cell research until it is appealed to a higher
court. White House spokesman Reid Cherlin says that hESC research is important
for the Obama Administration. “We’re going to do everything possible to make
sure to avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences of this injunction.”

The
director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, says that
the decision will waste a colossal amount of money and work expended since
2001. The NIH has invested more than $546 million and
the “anticipated financial loss to NIH and the taxpaying public is enormous
and would include the hundreds of millions already spent on interrupted
projects and the administrative costs of shutting down and restarting the NIH
funding,” a spokesman declared.

Dr
Collins also pointed out that adult stem cell research has numerous drawbacks
despite its successes, research expertise will be lost, and young scientists
will go overseas. “The momentum that has finally been established in the hESC
field will be lost,” he said in a
statement to the court. He lamented that “the greatest loss,
however, will be for the millions of Americans suffering from diseases current
under study with hESC.” ~ Washington
Post, Aug 31

Michael Cook
stem cells

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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