Gary Merchant

Gary Marchant, ASU Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law and Ethics, and Executive Director of the College of Law’s Center for Law, Science & Innovation, was quoted recently in the ASU State Press about a federal judge’s ruling on funding of stem cell research.

In a temporary injunction issued on Aug. 23, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that federal funding of all research using cells derived from destroyed embryos violates federal law.

“I don’t think it was a well-advised opinion,” Marchant told reporter April Atwood. “There’s no question that human embryos are destroyed to create stem cell lines, but that is not the research that is being funded.”

On Sept. 9, a federal appeals court lifted the lower court’s temporary injunction barring the federal government from funding the research, pending a full review of the case.

To read the full article, click here.

Marchant’s research interests include the use of genetic information in environmental regulation, risk and the precautionary principle, legal aspects of personalized medicine, and regulation of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, neuroscience and biotechnology. He teaches courses in Environmental Law, Law, Science & Technology, Genetics and the Law, Biotechnology: Science, Law and Policy, and Nanotechnology Law & Policy. He also is a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences.