After years of funding restrictions, research with human embryonic stem cells is now under a legal cloud that may cut off research funding permanently, thereby threatening the emergence of cures for otherwise incurable conditions affecting the lives and health of over 100 million Americans.

The recent 2010 election has empowered the foes of embryonic stem cell research. Their agenda is aided by well-funded social-conservative organizations that poured millions of dollars into bioethics think tanks dedicated to crippling the quest for cures. One of these groups, the Alliance Defense Fund, underwrites the federal lawsuit, Sherley v. Sebelius, challenging current federal funding under guidelines adopted by the National Institutes of Health. Research foes spread disinformation and lend support to laws, such as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, that block discoveries that could lead to lifesaving cures.

If the plaintiffs in this case are successful, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be prohibited by the federal courts from funding human embryonic stem cell research. The NIH invests over $31.2 billion annually in medical research.   Estimates published by NIH in February 2010 indicated that its total support for hESC research during the 12 months ended September 30, 2010 (the end of federal fiscal year 2010) would be $137 million (including $14 million of American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funding committed in 2009), with only $126 million projected for fiscal year 2011.

Blocking federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research in the US will be devastating to patients, researchers, industry and the economy of the United States of America and the field of biological research.

Moreover, unless the pro-cures community mobilizes and takes action, more restrictive legislation at both the federal and state levels may be adopted. Research foes plan an aggressive agenda to block embryonic stem cell research legislatively at both the federal and state level and in the courts.