Judge Blocks Stem Cell Research Funding

President Obama's executive order expanding embryonic stem cell research has been blocked by a district judge who says it violates a ban on federal money being used to destroy embryos. US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted an injunction to stop federal funding of the research, a move that deals a massive setback to the administration's policy, and is expected to disrupt dozens of experiments already in progress, the New York Times reports.

Opponents of the research hailed the decision but scientists and advocates of embryonic stem cell research were stunned. "This is devastating, absolutely devastating," a former president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research tells the Washington Post. "We were really looking forward to the next chapter when human embryonic stem cells could really be explored for their full potential," she says. "Every day we lose is another day lost for patients waiting for cures." (More National Institutes of Health stories.)