NIH Committee Recommends Withholding Federal Support For 47 Stem Cell Lines

The NIH Advisory Committee to Director Francis Collins recommended that the agency reject federal research funding for 47 embryonic stem cell lines because of a sentence of legal language in a contract signed by embryo donors. RGI, "one of the world's leading performers of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis," received the stem cells from clients who donated unwanted embryos for research, USA Today reports. Members of the advisory committee objected to a sentence in RGI's donation contracts that they said creates "exculpatory" language barring patients from subsequently filing lawsuits for negligence or harm -- language forbidden under federal research rules. MedNewsToday