Words Matter

According to certain news outlets, a huge majority of people in Michigan favor killing human embryos for their stem cells. For example, an editorial by the Detroit Free Press claimed, “In a recent statewide survey, 65% of Michigan voters said they’d support a ballot proposal to allow research using embryonic stem cells...”

Forget for a second that research using embryonic stem cells is allowed in Michigan even though the killing of human embryos for research and human cloning is illegal, the problem is the survey in question (a MIRS/Rossman poll conducted in February) never mentioned “embryonic stem cells.” The poll uses unspecific language which didn’t give the respondents a good idea of what they were being questioned about. The poll asked if those being surveyed “would allow scientists to conduct research on stem cells and establish strict reporting and oversight on any stem cell research in their state.” The word “embryonic” is nowhere to be found.

In addition, 11% of the survey respondents were unsure of how to respond. This is a sign the question being asked wasn’t a very descriptive question and/or large portions of the public aren’t especially familiar with this issue and don’t know how they feel.

When polls ask more specific questions and mention human embryos need to be destroyed for researchers to obtain embryonic stem cells, the results are quite different. A poll in May of 2006 commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found only 38.6 percent of the public was in favor of spending federal tax dollars on embryonic stem cell research. The poll also found the majority of people (56.8 percent) favored spending tax dollars on forms of stem cell research which don’t destroy human embryos over embryonic stem cell research and more than 80 percent of the public opposed using cloning to create human embryos for research.

Stem cell research is a topic many people in our state are unfamiliar with. They don’t know how they feel because they don’t know a lot about the issue. Prolife people need to be educating their friends and family about this important issue. If you would like materials to help you educate your community about stem cell research, feel free to visit Right to Life of Michigan.

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