Ethics and politics of embryo and stem cell research: reinscribing the abortion debate.

Research on human embryos is controversial. Whether federal dollars can or should fund this work has been debated for 25 years, without satisfactory resolution. Many commentators point out that current conflict over embryo research grows out of this country's seemingly intractable conflict over abortion and the moral status of the fetus. This commentary reviews the most recent iteration of the embryo research debate--federal funding of human embryonic stem cell investigation--and explores the ways in which the terms of this debate not only reflect abortion disputes, but may in turn be shifted to strengthen feminist claims vis-à-vis abortion.