Frustrated scientists in the US face another anxious wait before judges decide on Monday whether federally funded work on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) should continue until the legality of their use is resolved.
鈥淚t鈥檚 worrying that I could come into work one day and I might not be allowed to do my research because of someone鈥檚 ideological beliefs rather than the quality of the science,鈥� says at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His work on an inherited bowel condition was disrupted in August after a shock court injunction on federally funded hESCs.
Mosher鈥檚 research is a victim of wrangling over whether federal funding of work on hESCs should be banned because their creation can involve the destruction of an embryo, potentially violating a legal amendment passed in 1995.
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judges must decide whether research can continue until the issue is settled, or until legislation is introduced which supersedes the restrictions.
