Public Backs Stem Cell Research

June 26 -- Americans by a 2-1 margin support stem cell research and say it should be funded by the federal government, despite controversy over its use of human embryos.

Advocates of this research say it can produce new treatments for disease, while critics oppose using embryos in research. After hearing these competing views, 58 percent of Americans support stem cell research, while 30 percent oppose it, according to a new ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll. Six in 10 also say the federal government should fund it.

Do You Support Federal Funding for Stem-Cell Research?

President Bush is considering whether to continue a Clinton administration policy allowing federal funding of stem cell research. Bush was reported last week to be leaning against it, given opposition from some political conservatives, anti-abortion groups and the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics are swing voters.

Popular Reads

Airman killed rappelling from Alamodome's ceiling in Salute to Armed Forces ceremony

• Oct 19

'United in grief': 4 dead, 39 injured in explosion at Canadian military training base

• 2 days ago

Bend, Oregon, shooting: Suspect ID'd, had attended elementary school, police say

• Oct 16

This ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll, however, finds that people in these groups do not broadly oppose stem cell research. Catholics support it personally by a margin of 54 percent to 35 percent, and favor its federal funding by a slightly wider margin, 60 percent to 32 percent. (A small share of Catholics oppose the research personally, but support its funding as a matter of policy.)

Conservatives divide evenly on stem cell research. More Republicans support it than oppose it. Among evangelical white Protestants — a conservative, largely anti-abortion, core Bush group — 50 percent support it, while 40 percent are opposed. Even among opponents of legal abortion, opposition to stem cell research falls just short of a majority, at 50 percent.

Indeed, one of the groups that's least supportive of stem cell research is blacks — the most solidly Democratic group in the nation. Forty-four percent of blacks personally oppose stem cell research, 15 points higher than the level of opposition among whites.

Support for stem cell research is much higher, moreover, among centrist groups that are also of interest to Bush politically — such as independents (62 percent support stem cell research), moderates (63 percent) and non-evangelical white Protestants (70 percent).