Coverage of human genetic technology shifted dramatically in the summer of 2001, when controversy over embryonic stem cells consistently made the front pages of The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other national newspapers. The stem cell issue was often blurred by and confused with the issue of research cloning.
The media framed the issue simply as one of "medical progress versus pro-life politics" as the July 9 cover of Newsweek put it. Other voices—including those pointing to the links between research cloning and reproductive cloning, and to the fact that research cloning is a technical prerequisite for germline engineering—were all but absent.
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Several articles have been published that serve as examples of the
way the political field has been largely described as one of
scientists hoping to save lives versus opponents of abortion rights
who see destroying stem cells as equivalent to taking a life.
- Jessica Reaves, "The Great Debate Over Stem Cell Research,"
Time (July 11, 2001)
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,167245,00.html - "Research Foes Decry Embryo 'Slaughter'" CNN (July 25,
2001)
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/07/17/stem.cell.hearing/index.html
- Peter Grier, "In Stem-cell Debate, a Culture War, " The
Christian Science Monitor (July 6, 2001) - The stem cell
debate is described as an ideological battle, "increasingly a
proxy for the broad science-versus-religion arguments that have
long swirled about abortion and other morally charged issues."
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/07/06/p1s1.htm
Examples of the way cloning and stem cells have been portrayed as
interdependent technologies:
- Rick Weiss, "Firm Aims to Clone Embryos for Stem Cells,"
Washington Post (July 12, 2001)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article
&node=&contentId=A48618-2001Jul11 - "Cloning Stem Cells Can Cause Abnormalities in Mice: Study"
CBC News (July 2001)
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/07/05/clones_abnormal
Carl Hall, "Untangling biotech issues: cloning is research field
entirely separate from stem cells," San Francisco Chronicle
(December 3, 2001) - attempts to disentangle cloning and stem cell
technologies
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/12/03/MN138336.DTL&type=science
More Information
Perspectives:
Explore various communities' concerns regarding human genetic
technologies
Policies:
Read about existing and potential regulations
Technologies:
Learn the basic science and consider arguments for and against
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