Public Approval/Trust Relating to Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In class yesterday, we discussed political trust and public approval. While the issue I am working on is relatively new (within the last decade), I have seen a few polling questions that I believe relate to my topic and what we discussed in class. For example, when Obama overturned the ban, the public was asked if they approve or disapprove of his decision. More than 1/2 approved. Also when questions ask if federal funding should be set aside for this research, I believe it shows political trust because the public is depending on the government to make the decisions about funding according to public opinion. When polls first began on this issue in 2001, those who favored federal funding was a little less than 1/2 while that increased to more than 1/2 by 2009. There has not been a large discrepency in numbers since 2001 but when this first became publicized in politics, Bush made a policy regardless of public opinion. I know that public opinion is important in politics and can change policies in government, but based on the findings of my research on polling, it appears that the public is not the ultimate decision maker. Rather, it seems that the next political candidate will use what the previous political did as the opposite of what s/he will do. However, as I said this issue is new and it will take a few more decades of polling and government policies to confirm any trends and changes regarding this issue. Also, I did find a question from 2004 during the presidential elections that asked respondents if Bush's view and Kerry's view on stem cell research would influence who they vote for and 40% said it would not.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Becomes a Political Issue in 1999

As I have been researching the history of my topic and polling I found that embryonic stem cell research did not really become a political issue until 1999. Scientists and the National Institute for Health looked for funding from the federal government to advance their research. During the decade of trying to extract stem cells from human embryos, the research was privately funded. In 1999 when they went to the federal government there had already been a ban in place on funding any kind of research using human embryos (this may have had a lot to do with the cloning issue). Either way, Clinton and other government officials decided the moral cost did not outweigh the potential benefits and granted funding. Still at this time, polls were not conducted on the issue, rather it was just a political issue that really hadn't caught people's attention yet. The main people who paid attention were opponents, groups who were opposed to Roe v. Wade. They believe life begins at conception which is the basis of their argument. In this type of research, the egg must be fertilized and after one week, the cells are extracted and the potential for life no longer exists. Having to fertilize the egg is ultimately where the controversy arises. At the beginning, news reports treated this issue like a breakthrough in science and pretty much reported on the facts. Controversy wasn't really presented in the media other than that it may stir up debates. Polling on the issue began in 2001 when the political basis of the issue was brought to the forefront of the media. When the federal government began debating the issue polls began and continued from there. Bush did not change government restrictions until after the polling began and despite a majority in favor of the research, he made his decision which seems to be based on personal feelings rather than that of the public. Researching the historical arena of this issue is quite short, but it is very interesting to look at an issue that began during my lifetime which helps me understand more where the country stood regarding this issue.

Poll Question from 2000

I forgot to post the link of the question from 2000 so here it is:

http://webapps.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cfide/psearch_test/webroot/multquestion_view.cfm?QSTN_ID2=431859&qid=+431859&pid=4&ccid=0&x=82&y=9

Poll Question from 2000

I posted yesterday that the earliest poll I found concerning the issue of embryonic stem cell research was from 2001. However, I found a polling question from 2000 about stem cell research from the Kaiser Foundation. The foundation administered a poll to find out what important issues the public was following in the media. They do these polls in order to help the media know what to report and how much information they are conveying to the public. The question was asking respondents how closely they have followed news coverage of stem cell research. 56% reported they were not at all closely following the story. This may have also been asked due to the upcoming presidential election in 2000. Then in 2001, President Bush banned federal funding for stem cell research and it became a hot topic in the media and among the public. In 2001 poll organizations began asking the public their opinions regarding the issue. I also found out through research that this issue does not have a long history in the polls because stem cells were not extracted from embryos until 1998 when a man named James Thompson from Wisconsin University successfully did this. He is the head of the regenerative biology lab there. His website is posted below.

http://stemcells.wisc.edu/faculty/thomson.html

Research Expectations

Today I am going to write about what I expect to find in my research regarding the history of stem cell research polling and public opinion. First, I don't really expect to find a long historical background seeing as though 2001 seems to be the first poll I have found. I do expect to find changes in question wording as new information became available to poll organizations regarding this issue. I also expect to see stability because when I did my first class presentation, I found that opinions from the polls remained stable between 2001 and 2009 give or take a few percentage points. Concerning frequency of polling this issue, I anticipate more polls beginning in 2001, the same year Bush banned funding and the polls began (as far as I know now) and in 2009 when Obama overturned the ban. It seems that these were the times the topic was salient because politics were deciding on policies regarding the research. While I know polls have been conducted at other times between 2001 and 2009, I expect to find that the frequency calmed down. Regarding media coverage, I anticipate it was most prominent during the same times and possibly when a possible breakthrough with the research came to light. However, since it doesn't seem that the media focused too much on the difference between embryonic and adult stem cell research, I expect to find most media information regarding embryonic stem cells. Since this topic is new within this decade, I do not anticipate too many changes in media reporting especially since poll results remained stable. Any trends and changes may be a byproduct of the changes in policies the presidents made and any new breakthroughs in the research. This is just information I expect to find, not necessarily information I have found.

Is the Public Misinformed?

My class is beginning a new unit in which we are required to research and write a paper on the history of polls regarding our issue. As you know, my issue is embryonic stem cell research which is an issue that is a lot more recent than I actually knew. While I just began my research, so far the earliest poll I have found is from 2001! However, even more interesting, is that I found something out about this issue that I never understood (a misinformed citizen with an opinion!!). I don't know how many people actually understand this (or it could just be me) but when Bush banned federal funding for this research, he never took away ALL the funding. His policy centered around the science that kills embryos for this research. In other words, he never cut funding for research on stem cells that had already been extracted from embryos, just future embryos that had not been touched yet. While this does not change my opinion on this issue, it is a very important piece of information that may change others' opinions. I thought Bush banned all types of funding not just selected types. This just goes to show that ordinary people who think they know something don't really know something (myself included). This information came from the Gallup Organization's publication, "The Gallup Poll - Public Opinion 2001."

Media Bias

I found an article about media bias pertaining to stem cell research. The author is an investigative journalist who wrote that the media is biased in reporting adult stem cell research versus embryonic stem cell research. He writes that the public is more interested in hearing about embryonic stem cell research and the media chooses this topic as being "newsworthy." He reports that the public is misinformed about the truth pertaining to all stem cell research and that even scientists do not report on adult stem cell research because it is not what the public wants to hear about. The website has a bio of the author and he seems to be a credible source. His article is intersting in regards to the media and public opinion:

<"http://www.fumento.com/biotech/stem-cell-story.html">

Polling and the Media

In class yesterday, we discussed polling and the media including the criticisms of media reports on polls. To start, we discussed how a source supplies the media (which is the medium) with information, and then that information is reported to the audience (public). This is a vital process for a republican democracy that embraces free communication. However, an issue rises when information that is passed on to the audience is bias and unreliable. I found a source that lobbys in Washington and provides information to the media regarding the topic I am working on (embryonic stem cell research). The National Right to Life Organization is a biased source that is one-sided. The organization was founded upon the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade and has been fighting for their beliefs ever since (which is not the issue I am contesting since we all have freedom of speech). The issue that matters here is that in comparison to other polls like the Gallup and ABC news, their results are quite different. They found that 52% of Americans oppose federal funding while 36% support it which is a lot different from what other polling organizations have found. Their website documents that their poll included standards that are necessary to obtain reliable results. However, it just seems pretty inaccurate when other credible polls have found opposite results making their poll questionable. It is only questionable because of stability that has been found from other polls.
The point that I am trying to make here is that this group is a media source that seems to be providing biased results. While it is the media's responsibility to investigate their sources before labeling results reliable and fair, groups like this can easily create a media "spin." The website below is directly linked to the organization and its story on embryonic stem cell research. It also includes some polling questions which you will be able to notice are leading questions.

http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/USCCBPoll051605.html