Abstract
Conventional approaches to pluralistic thinking in
bioethics usually attempt in one fashion or another to isolate
and choose between the different perspectives. I would
argue, however, that the essentialist and existentialist perspectives
on the embryo each are internally self-consistent
and ethically correct within their own framework and at
the same time mutually exclusive. Therefore, we will nd
no ethical high ground on which to base a choice. Rather,
human embryo research will continue to be characterized
by a multiplicity of views that together create a state of
holistic, dynamic tension, what has been called bioethical
complementarity (Grinnell, Bishop, and McCullough
2002).