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Regarding the alleged inconsistency of withholding federal 
funding but not calling for a ban on all private embryo re- 
search, some have pointed out that the Dickey Amendment, 
under which the President was acting, is itself a “don’t fund, 
don’t ban’’ law. Moreover, they argue that neither statesman- 
ship nor prudence requires that the President do battle with 
what is settled practice (the free use of embryos in private- 
sector research) or push zealously against everything to which 
he is morally opposed, especially in a pluralistic society that is 
deeply divided on the moral issue. An analogous case may be 
found in the administration’s approach to abortion, a practice 
that the President says he opposes deeply on moral grounds: 
the administration supports the legislative ban on federal 
funding, but has not called for a constitutional amendment 
that would ban abortion. As President Bush told the pro-life 
“March for Life’’ participants in January 2002: “Abortion is an 
issue that deeply divides our coimtry. And we need to treat 
those with whom we disagree with respect and civility. We 
must overcome bitterness and rancor where we find it and 
seek common ground where we can. But we will continue to 
speak out on behalf of the most vulnerable members of our so- 
ciety.’’®^ In a similar way, its defenders contend that the cur- 
rent administration policy on stem cell research funding keeps 
the public ethical conversation open, may be acceptable to 
some individuals who hold that human embryos possess an 
intermediate or unknowable moral standing, and, at the same 
time, also advances the cause of those who contend that hu- 
man embryos should be protected from destruction alto- 
gether.®^ 
The present funding policy has also been defended from 
the charge of inconsistency on rather different grounds, which, 
for their advocates, carry different consequences for future 
federal funding. This defense contends that, if the early em- 
bryo is morally equivalent to a child, then the proper moral re- 
sponse would be to ban all future embryo destruction and all 
stem cell research (public and private) on embryos destroyed 
after August 9, 2001, and not merely deny it federal funding. 
Confronted with a practice that involved killing children so 
that their organs could be used to save the lives of others, ad- 
vocates of this view contend, no one would simply deny it fed- 
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