Data Bank: Public Support for Stem Cell Research On the Rise

Demographic changes in recent decades are thinning out conservative views on “culture war” issues such as stem cell research, according to a new report from the Progressive Studies Program at the Center for American Progress. Among the findings: Public support for embryonic stem cell research is on the rise, as CAP Senior Fellow Ruy Texeria observed from national survey data.

A Virginia Commonwealth University survey found that Americans’ support for stem cell research exceeded opposition in 2003—two years after President Bush banned federal funding for research using new stem cell lines. The survey that asked participants if they favored or opposed “medical research that uses stem cells from human embryos” each year from 2002 to 2008. Support surpassed opposition by 21 percentage points in 2008.

The gap between support and opposition is even wider when survey questions put embryonic stem cell research in the context of curing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. A June 2008 Time poll reported 73 percent in favor of and 19 percent in opposition to the medical use of embryonic stem cells.

Before President Obama lifted Bush’s stem cell restrictions in March 2009, 53 percent of Americans believed the federal government should fund research using human embryonic stem cells, according to a May 2007 CNN poll. Only 41 percent of those surveyed opposed federal funding.

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