Thursday, September 16, 2010

New poll finds Americans favor funding life-affirming stem cell research

A new poll conducted by International Communications Research finds that 47% of Americans don't want their tax dollars used to fund embryonic stem cell research. Only 38% favored spending federal tax dollars on this research.

After being informed about life-affirming forms of stem cell research which don't necessitate the destruction of human life, 57% favored only funding life-affirming forms of stem cell research compared to 21% who favored funding all forms of research. The poll also found that the majority of Americans continue to oppose human cloning. The survey was commissioned by the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and was conducted on September 8-14.

"The Senate should not be misled on this important issue," said Richard M. Doerflinger, Associate Director of the USCCB's Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. "Most Americans do not support federally funded research that requires destroying human embryos. They want their tax dollars used for stem cell research that is ethically sound as well as medically promising – the kind of research that has attracted the interest and commitment of more and more stem cell experts in recent years."

FULL STORY