US lifts stem cell funding ban

A US appeals court has granted a request to temporarily lift a judge's ban on federal funding of research involving human embryonic stem cells. The three-judge panel of the appeals court said in a brief order that it put on hold the judge's ban to give it sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the US administration's emergency request for a stay. "Upon consideration of the emergency motion for stay pending appeal ... it is ordered that the district court's August 23, 2010 order be stayed pending further order of the court," the Washington DC federal appeals court said on Thursday. The appeals court ordered that briefs be filed by September 20 in the case. It then will decide whether the temporary stay should be extended or ended. In August, Royce Lamberth, a US district court judge, ruled that the research violated US law because it involved destroying human embryos. His order was a setback for Barack Obama, the US president, who had tried to expand research in the hope that it would lead to new cures for diseases.