Poll Shows Canadians More Concerned About Killing Animals Than Unborn Children
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 30, 2009
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) — A new Canadian poll finds a tremendous incongruency in the thinking of Canadians on key social and political issues. The new survey finds Canadians are more outraged with the killing of animals or their medical testing than the destruction of unborn children and using them for scientific study.
A new national survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion and published in Maclean’s magazine finds practices pro-life advocates find objectionable are morally acceptable.
The poll asked: "Regardless of whether or not you think each of the following issues should be legal, please indicate whether you personally believe they are morally acceptable or morally wrong."
In 2007, 61 percent of Canadians found abortion morally okay and that number has increased to 66 percent today. On the other hand, a lower 53 percent of Canadians say buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur is morally all right.
While a minority of 44 percent of Canadians are morally fine with medical testing on animals, some 69 percent of Canadians have no trouble with medical research that uses stem cells obtained from human embryos — which can only be obtained by destroying days-old unborn children.
The only issue on which Canadians place human beings above animals comes on cloning — where 27 percent say they are all right with animal cloning compared with 11 percent who say human cloning is morally permissible.
The divide on pro-life issues is also seen in the case of suicide, which is important because the Canadian parliament will debate a bill next year that will legalize assisted suicide.
While just 28 percent of Canadians say suicide is morally all right, a larger 65 percent say they are fine with the practice of assisted suicide.
On each of the practices pro-life advocates object to, Canadians are more supportive now than in 2007. Support for embryonic stem cell research rose from 64 to 69 percent, backing of assisted suicide rose from 62 to 65 percent, and backing for human cloning stayed the same while support for animal cloning dropped two percent from 29 to 27 percent.
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