Federally financed researchers will soon be able to work on human embryonic stem cells, the source cells from which the embryo develops as a result of a ruling by the Department of Health and Human Services that a Congressional ban on human embryo does not apply to those cells. The decision was hailed as "an accurate interpretation of bad law" by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and denounced by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops as a loohole that "violates the spirit of current law."