Current Federal Law and Policy 
37 
This latter point — regarding the meaning of government 
funding — is much neglected in the current debates and de- 
serves further clarification. That will require delving into the 
important distinction between government permission (that is, 
an absence of prohibitions) of an activity and government 
support for an activity. This ethical-political distinction lies at 
the heart of the stem cell debate. 
IV. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FEDERAL FUNDING 
The national debate over human embryonic stem cell re- 
search often raises the most fundamental questions about the 
moral status of human embryos and the legitimacy of research 
that destroys such embryos. Yet, looking over this debate, it is 
easy to forget that the question at issue is not whether re- 
search using embryos should be allowed, but rather whether it 
should be financed with the federal taxpayer’s dollars. 
The difference between prohibiting embryo research and 
refraining from funding it has often been blurred by both sides 
to the debate. Ignored in the battles over embryo research 
itself, the ethical-political question regarding funding is rarely 
taken up in full. 
That question arises because modem governments do more 
than legislate and enforce prohibitions and limits. In the age of 
the welfare state, the government, besides being an enforcer 
of laws and a keeper of order, is also a major provider of re- 
sources. Political questions today, therefore, reach beyond 
what ought and ought not be allowed. They include questions 
of what ought and ought not be encouraged, supported, and 
made possible by taxpayer funding. The decision to fund an 
activity is more than an offer of resources. It is also a declara- 
tion of official national support and endorsement, a positive 
assertion that the activity in question is deemed by the nation 
as a whole, through its government, to be good and worthy. 
When something is done with public funding, it is done, so to 
speak, in the name of the country, with its blessing and en- 
couragement. 
To offer such encouragement and support is therefore no 
small matter. The federal government is not required to pro- 
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