The National Institutes of Health specified today that federal funding of life-killing research involving human embryos would be allowed for so-called “surplus” embryos creating through in vitro fertilization treatments.

“We are likely to increase greatly the number of human embryonic stem cells available for federal funding,” acting NIH director Raynard Kington told a telephone briefing, Reuters reported.

The Catholic Church condemns all research that results in the death of human embryos, whether or not they are designated as “surplus.” Fertility clinics in the United States have thousands of frozen embryos kept in storage, following their creation for treatment of infertility.

The new NIH guidelines do not authorize federal funding for research using human embryos created by cloning.

Last month, President Barack Obama lifted a ban instituted in 2001 by President George W. Bush. The ban allowed funding of research using existing stem-cell lines derived from human embryos, but it prohibited all federal funding of research that involved the killing of additional human embryos.

The Daily Blog will report further on the NIH guidelines in a subsequent post, containing analysis by pro-life experts of the consequences of the new guidelines.