Actor and research activist Christopher Reeve's death last week
brought renewed focus to his tireless efforts over the last decade
to promote stem cell research. Because stem cells are essentially
"blank cells" that can become specialized cells, they can be
genetically manipulated and have the potential to regenerate
damaged organs or tissue. Scientists see them as a pathway toward
cures for spinal cord injuries of the kind Reeve suffered, as well
as diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other
conditions.
But for many people, the fact that some stem cells come from
human embryos -- either frozen embryos resulting from in vitro
fertilization procedures or embryos cloned for the sole purpose of
research -- is a moral impediment to this research. However, recent
Gallup polling in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain*,
indicates that majorities in each country agree that using
embryonic stem cells for research is morally acceptable. Americans
are less likely than Canadians to find it morally acceptable, 54%
of U.S. adults say it is morally acceptable, compared with 61% of
Canadians who say so. Americans' and Britons' views are more
similar; 57% of Britons find it morally acceptable. Roughly a third
in each country say it is morally wrong.
Science and Religion
Americans tend to be far more religious than Canadians or
Britons -- Americans are nearly twice as likely as Canadians and
three times as likely as Britons to attend church weekly. Americans
are also far more likely to say that religion is very important in
their lives (see "Worlds Apart: Religion in Canada, Britain, U.S."
in Related Items).
Given that high level of religiosity, one might expect far fewer
Americans to view embryonic stem cell research as morally
acceptable than do those in the other two countries. But the
gap in opinion on stem cell research is relatively small; much
larger gaps are evident between the United States and the other two
countries on questions about the moral acceptability of abortion,
premarital sex, and same-sex marriage.
The absence of large differences may partly reflect the newness
and complexity of the issue -- many people have not yet formed the
same entrenched positions that they may have on other moral issues
that have been in the public eye longer. (For a closer look at
Americans' positions on stem cell research, see "Medicine Meets
Morality in Stem Cell Debate" in Related Items.)
Across all three countries, people with similar levels of
religiosity tend to have like-minded views on the topic of
embryonic stem cell research. Those who attend church or synagogue
weekly or nearly weekly are the least likely to say that stem cell
research is morally acceptable -- 38% in the United States, 35% in
Canada, and 42% in Great Britain. The same relationship holds true
for those who say that religion is very important in their daily
lives. For example, 43% of Canadians for whom religion is very
important feel embryonic stem cell research is morally acceptable,
versus 75% of those who say that religion is not very important in
their daily lives.
Bottom Line
While people in all three countries have somewhat similar views
about the moral acceptability of embryonic stem cell research, each
country has very different governmental regulations dictating the
production and use of those stem cells.
The Bush' administration's stance on stem cell research is to
fund research on existing stem cells, but not on new stem cell
lines. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the British government
created the United Kingdom Stem Cell Bank to distribute embryonic
stem cell lines free to researchers, although a British ethics
committee will carefully monitor their use. Canada's current policy
falls somewhere in between that of the United States and Great
Britain. Their government will finance research using stem cells
from embryos and aborted fetuses, but will not permit cloning stem
cells for the purpose of research.
*Results in the United States are based on telephone
interviews 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May
2-4, 2004. For results based on the total sample of national
adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of
sampling error is ±3 percentage points. The survey was
conducted by Gallup USA.
Results in Canada are based on telephone interviews with
1,005 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Aug. 30-Sept.
6, 2004. For results based on the total sample of national adults,
one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling
error is ±3 percentage points. The survey was
conducted by Gallup Canada.
Results in Great Britain are based on telephone interviews
with 1,009 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Aug.
25-Sept. 7, 2004. For results based on the total sample of national
adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of
sampling error is ±5 percentage points. The survey was
conducted by Gallup UK.
