Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Since then, while Obama's Executive Order was intended as an
endorsement of hESC research, the Dickey-Wicker Amendment has
proven to be a highly charged sticking point for the progress of
hESC research conducted with federal funds.
In August 2010, a district court judge found that Obama's
Executive Order violated the Dickey-Wicker Amendment and
announced an injunction against the further funding of human
embryonic stem cell research until a further decision might be made
(Wadman, 2010). The basis for this decision stemmed from a law
suit initiated in 2009 that argued that funding for hESC research
increased competition for funding and therefore unfairly impacted
on the adult stem cell researchers who initiated the suit (Wadman,
2010). Through the appeals process, the injunction was stopped not
long after it was initiated after consideration of the validity of the
original decision made by the district court (Wadman, 2010). The
case against the relaxation of laws regarding the funding of embryo
research was ultimately dismissed in July 2011, although the ruling
may yet be appealed (Wadman, 2011).
5.1.2 PatentingissuesintheEUandtheUS
Another key issue that has been broadly debated around stem cell
science is the extent to which the patenting of biological materials is
permissible. In the US, patent rights are quite broad, but in the EU the
opposite is the case. Given that patenting is a crucial step in
commercialization, disparities in patenting regimes are ultimately going
to have significant impacts on the prospects for commercialization.
The US patent system is argued to date back to the development
of the Constitution (Kahn and Sokoloff, 2001). Although the legal
system established the principle of patent protection, the contemporary
US patent system was only formalized when the Patent Act was
established in 1836 (Kahn and Sokoloff, 2001). The strength of the
US patent regime is also argued to have contributed to the success of
economic development in the US in the nineteenth century (Kahn
and Sokoloff, 2001). While there have been various changes since
then to US patent law, with the development of the Agreement
