WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government released final rules Monday governing federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells, loosening some requirements that scientists said could have cost them a decade of work.
But the new rules, which take effect Tuesday, keep many of the restrictions on the research. U.S. federal funds may not be used to actually make the cells using human embryos -- only to work with them after someone else has made them.
But the National Institutes of Health agreed with arguments that proposed regulations published in April could have forced researchers to throw away work done with stem cell batches, or lines, created over the past few years.
"We allow a case-by-case review," acting NIH director Dr. Raynard Kington told reporters in a telephone briefing.
In March, President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research that had been put into place by his predecessor, former president George W. Bush.
