Court halts president’s stem cell expansion

Ex-MIT scientist’s suit brings injunction; Law on destruction of embryos at issue
By Stephen Smith and Tracy Jan
Globe Staff
August 24, 2010

A federal judge in Washington yesterday temporarily blocked the Obama administration’s efforts to expand stem cell research, ruling in a case brought by a former MIT scientist and others who oppose embryonic stem cell research.

Royce C. Lamberth, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said in his 15-page decision that regulations designed to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research violated a law prohibiting destruction of embryos for research purposes.

Additionally, the judge ruled that former MIT researcher Dr. James L. Sherley and other scientists who study less controversial adult stem cells would face “actual, imminent injury’’ because of the competition for federal dollars that would be stoked by expansion of research into embryonic stem cells. the rest