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.  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:
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 | 
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