The director of the National Institutes of Health and the White House celebrated the decision.
Stem cell research is an area of biomedical research that scientists believe will be the basis for the development of treatments for ailments ranging from juvenile diabetes to spinal cord injury.
Funding for research was temporarily halted when last August, Judge Royce Lamberth, a district court judge in Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary injunction halting funding for embryonic stem cell research.
That ruling was put on hold and eventually reversed by a higher court.
The decision to dismiss the lawsuit finally put to rest the limbo scientists were having to work through.
Douglas Melton, codirector of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute told the Boston Globe, “It was never for me a cloudy or contentious issue; this was a politically motivated lawsuit. I would say I’m relieved - the feeling I have on the news you are giving me is this removes a last question mark . . . about the freedom to do this sort of research.
According to the Boston Globe, when President Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research through an executive order, many scientists and patient groups hailed it as the beginning of a new era for science and medicine. However, those opposed to the research criticized the decision, saying it is unethical because it requires the destruction of human embryos.
Lamberth wrote in a 38-page memorandum, “The question of whether embryonic stem cell research should be funded at all was not a question left on the table for the NIH by President Obama’s order. Indeed, had the NIH adopted plaintiffs’ views and refused to consider funding any embryonic stem cell research projects, its regulation would have been inconsistent with the Executive Order and unlawful.”