Competing Views of Embryos for the Twenty-First Century: Textbooks and Society

It might seem that an embryo is an embryo, and that there would be a fact of the matter. That seems especially true with respect to the way embryos are presented in textbooks, including high school biology textbooks. This paper looks at three co-existing, competing, and often conflicting views of embryos. Then with a close study of twentieth century high school biology textbooks, it explores suggestions about the ways those books have influenced public impressions of embryos.