HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Government financing of human embryonic stem cell research can continue, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The decision was an important victory for the Obama administration in a legal battle that is far from over. The 2-to-1 ruling, by a panel of judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, blocks a lower-court decision last August holding that such research is illegal under a law that bans public spending on research in which human embryos are damaged or destroyed.