c. 2005 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Americans’ support for stem cell research has grown significantly in the past three years, with the notable exception of white evangelical Christians, according to a new poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Asked to weigh the potential benefits of the research against ethical concerns about destroying embryos, 57 percent of Americans favored the research and 30 percent favored the embryos. The remainder _ 13 percent _ did not register an opinion.
Overall, support of embryonic research is up 14 percentage points from 2002, when Pew first polled on the stem cell question.
Increased support for the research has been particularly significant among white Catholics _ up 18 percentage points over three years, from 43 percent to 61 percent, the poll showed. The Catholic Church opposes embryonic research.
The poll found that three years ago, when the stem cell issue was fairly new, Americans’ opinions on the research were fairly fuzzy. But, as they learned more about the issue and its potential benefits, Americans grew more solid in their support of the research.
To be more precise, Americans, over time, seem to have fewer qualms about destroying embryos in order to harvest the stem cells. The poll did not ask about whether such research should be taxpayer-funded.
Among white Evangelical Christians, however, support for embryonic research has remained comparatively low: 32 percent in 2005 (up from 26 percent in 2002), according to the poll.
In order to collect the stem cells, the embryos must be destroyed. The Catholic Church and most conservative evangelicals consider embryos human life that cannot be destroyed. Instead, Catholic bishops have advocated research using stem cells collected from adults and umbilical chords.
Scientists, however, say embryonic stem cells hold the most promise, with the potential to treat a multitude of debilitating diseases. Embryonic research supporters say the current supply of stem cell “colonies” are insufficient, and have urged Congress to loosen restrictions imposed by President Bush in 2001.
In May, the House passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would allow federally funded research on excess frozen embryos at fertility clinics that are donated by parents.
In the face of growing support, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., an anti-abortion Presbyterian, recently angered conservative allies by throwing his support behind expanded funding. “We should expand federal funding and current guidelines governing stem cell research, carefully and thoughtfully staying within ethical bounds,” he said.
Frist’s about-face, in many ways, reflects the changing opinions in the general population. But two Catholic senators, former presidential candidate John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., reflect the ongoing divide among Catholics over the research.
Kerry, for one, supported Frist’s change of heart. “Some of the most pioneering cures and treatments are right at our fingertips. We can’t let politics keep them beyond our reach,” Kerry said.
But Santorum, an outspoken conservative Catholic, reflects the church’s ethical concerns about destroying the embryos for research. “I do not support taxpayer funding for scientific research that involves the destruction of human embryos or that is based on the prior destruction of human life,” he said after the House passed the stem cell bill.
The poll of 1,502 adults, conducted jointly by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
KRE/JL END RNS
