ABSTRACT
There is no more disputed area of the ethics of biomedical research than that regarding the creation, use, and destruction of human embryos. Many scientists and others are convinced that the key to curing a variety of serious diseases lies within such embryos, both from the knowledge to be gained from their study, and from the therapies to be developed using embryonic stem cells. On the other hand, try though some may, it has been impossible to separate the ethics (and politics) of stem cell research and other research involving human embryos, such as cloning research, from the nation’s larger debates about abortion and respect for human life.
