Poll: Americans Say Abortion, Cloning Wrong; Embryonic Stem Cells OK 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 26, 2006
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new Gallup poll surveying Americans’ thoughts on a number of political topics find people believe abortion and human and animal cloning are morally wrong while embryonic stem cell research is morally okay. The poll asked respondents to measure the moral acceptability of sixteen key political topics.
According to the poll, some 61 percent of Americans said "medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos" was morally okay while 30 percent disagreed. That’s higher than previous Gallup polls which found as many as 39 percent of Americans opposed to killing unborn children for stem cells.
Looking at the differences between the parties, 69 percent of Democrats said embryonic stem cell research is morally okay while 53 percent of Republicans agreed.
On the issue of assisted suicide, Americans were split 50-41 on the morality of that practice and previous polls found more Americans opposed it. Some 53 percent of Democrats accept it while 45 percent of Republicans do.
The poll found Americans think abortion is morally unacceptable on a 44-43 percent margin. Some 53 percent of Democrats think abortion is morally okay while just 30 percent of Republicans do.
This year’s poll is an anomaly on the subject of abortion as the last four polls found more than 50 percent of Americans said abortion was morally unacceptable.
When it comes to the issue of cloning, Americans frown on the practice of animal cloning by a 65-29 percent margin and find human cloning unacceptable by a 88-8 margin. That’s consistent with past polls, which have always found strong objections.
Just 8 percent of Republicans favored cloning humans and only 31 percent tolerate cloning animals. Only 28 percent of Democrats are okay with cloning animals and just 8 percent said cloning humans is okay.
Looking overall, Americans found the death penalty (71 percent) and divorce (67 percent) as the most morally acceptable practices. Married men and woman having an affair (4 percent) and polygamy (5 percent) were the least acceptable.
While Americans views on most practices stayed about the same from last year’s poll, those favoring animal cloning dropped from 35 to 29 percent.
The Gallup survey is based on telephone interviews with 1,002 national adults from May 8-11 and has a three percent margin of error.
