Early last week, in a historic ruling the Federal District Court of the US blocked the government funding of research involving embryonic stem cells. President Barack Obama authorized the renewal of federal funding in March 2009, reversing a ban imposed on embryonic stem cell research by his predecessor George W. Bush in 2001 on moral and religious grounds. The US District Judge Royce Lambert's ruling suspending the federal funding is in response to a petition filed by a group that includes several Christian organizations which argued that federal funding would go for research that involved destroying human embryos, which is against a 1996 law. Scientists have described the latest turn of events as a major setback for research which is believed to hold great potential for treatment of diseases like diabetes, Alzheimers and Parkinson's. In fact, the ruling can do serious damage to one of the most promising areas of biomedical research if no attempt is made to oppose it. Now, that is precisely what the US Justice Department is thinking of doing. Otherwise nearly 50 grant proposals for stem cell research may get blocked and as much as 74 million dollars in grant for other projects could be frozen.
With global pharma giants finding it increasingly difficult to get new chemical entities for treatment of certain chronic diseases, medical experts across the world are turning to stem cell therapy for treatment solutions. This new hope is motivating the scientists to explore the use of this technology on patients in hospitals. Private institutions and government laboratories in over a dozen countries including India have thus embarked upon stem cell research during the last 10 years. Stem cells are blank cells obtained from human embryos or cord blood or bone marrow which can develop into a variety of cells in human body. Scientists believe that these cells can transform into any of human body's approximate 260 different cell types. The main objection to stem cell research using embryonic cells is that it encourages destruction of embryos and abortion. That is more of a exaggerated concern of the religious groups of the US considering the fact that a large number of human embryos are already getting destroyed in the clinics and hospitals there. The court ruling seems to have also influenced by the argument that research using adult stem cells has proven successes and therefore there is no need for embryonic stem cell lines. This position may have some logic but the fact is that adult stem cells will ever be able to replace embryonic stem cells in all forms of research. Therefore, researchers need to explore both embryonic and adult stem cells to have the best chances of finding new treatments. Now, the Court ruling may halt the public funding of research but private funding is going to be there. It is important to have greater diversity of financing to have better diversity in research. And public funds are key to research into diseases whose cures are not profitable.