DOJ’s Brief, “Jeopardy” and Plaintiff’s “Self-Interest”
In arguments filed 8/31/10, The Department of Justice (DOJ) argued in an emergency motion that the injunction;
“threatens years of research, causing irrevocable harm to the millions of extremely sick or injured people who stand to benefit from continuing (hESC) research” and should be lifted to
- “avoid terminating research projects midstream, invalidating results in process and impeding years of scientific progress toward finding new treatments for devastating illnesses”.
The filing pointed to 24 projects up for renewed federal funding between now and the end of September and said the benefits from the research could be lost. If the projects ended, it would waste $64 M already invested.
In support, the government lawyers attached a 12 page statement from National Institutes of Health (NIH), Director Francis Collins on what’s at stake if the funding block continues.
- NIH has already sunk $546 M into human embryonic stem cell research since 2002 and the early work is now in jeopardy,
- Adult stem cells have been known for 50 years, yet in all that time researchers have been unable to overcome “serious limitations” on their use,
- Even temporary funding stoppages could seriously set back research that has been years in the making because it’s hard to restart,
- Overall, the injunction could put 1,300 jobs at risk, (NIH Director Francis Collins said in a declaration to the court).
Also, Sherley and Deisher’s “remote economic self-interests” that “do not outweigh the harm the injunction will cause NIH, the hundreds of affected human embryonic stem cell researchers, and the millions of individuals who hold out hope that human embryonic stem cell research will lead to the cure for, or treatment of, their currently incurable illnesses,” the Justice Department said.
