Gallup Poll: Sixty Percent of Americans Say Embryonic Stem Cell Research Morally Acceptable

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Earlier today, I wrote that most Americans support embryonic stem cell research. But I was struck that a recent Pew poll on the subject indicated just a bare majority of support, with 51 percent of Americans saying it's more important to conduct stem cell research that might lead to new cures than to avoid destroying human embryos.

So it's striking to look at a 2008 poll that Gallup has dusted off that finds moral objections to embryonic stem cell research are relatively slack. It shows that more than 6 in 10 Americans say that the research is moral, while just 3 in 10 say it's morally wrong. Read the full Gallup report here.

This obviously doesn't translate into 60-plus percent support for federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but it suggests that Christian conservatives are losing the moral argument against the research.

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