Pro-Cloning Support Only Lukewarm
In addition to finding that most Americans support a comprehensive ban on all human cloning (63 percent), a national survey by The Polling Company found support for the pro-cloning position is only lukewarm, while those holding an anti-cloning position show a higher intensity for their position.
Question: Which of the following comes closest to your own opinion:
Person 1 supports human cloning to allow science and research to pursue cures to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and Parkinson’s. Person 1 is opposed to cloning for creation of human beings, but supports cloning for creation of human embryos, which would be destroyed when used for medical research.
Person 2 agrees that it is important to use science and research to cure diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and Parkinson’s, but says that there are more ethical ways, like through the use of adult stem cells. Person 2 says it is wrong to create human embryos for the specific purpose of destroying them, even in medical research.
A swelling majority (59%), including typically center-left cohorts of the population, agree with the more conservative position on human cloning for medical research. This is twice the number that side with the more liberal argument (26%), modeled after a statement made by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
The intensity for the anti-cloning argument is higher than the total combined support for the pro-cloning position (38% “strongly agree person 2”, compared to 26% “strongly or somewhat agree person 1”).
Survey conducted by the polling company for Stop Human Cloning. Data derived from national survey of 800 adults representative of the population at large. The survey was fielded April 13-15, 2002 and aggregate data incur a margin of error calculated at +3.5%.