Focus Group

Yesterday I conducted a focus group about stem cell research, more specifically embryonic stem cell research. The purpose was to discover the opinions of the participants. All participants were volunteers and said they all had an opinion on the issue. There were a total of 7 participants from my community. I asked them all first with a show of hands who was for or against this research. I was happy to see that the group was pretty split with 4 being in favor and 3 being opposed. All those in favor maintained their position when the focus group was finished with their discussion while 1 person who was opposed actually changed his mind because he stated that he thought he knew what embryonic stem cell research was but through the focus group, realized it was something completely different and changed his position to favoring the research. The other 2 who were opposed were still in opposition whenthe group finished. While I will be writing a 15-20 page paper on the focus group's discussion, I will let viewers know some things that were said although not everything will be revealed here. First, I was quite pleased that everyone participated and was respectful. They all were interested in learning exactly what the research is regardless of whether or not they changed their minds at the end. All 7 had some idea as to what the research is and what it is used for. Even if part of their answer was incorrect, they still had some correct idea. For example, 2 people knew stem cells were extracted from fertilized eggs, however, they both believed that the cells were extracted from an egg that was already fertilized inside a woman. When asked the question as to what the difference was between embryonic stem cells and human stem cells, one person believed that human stem cells are used to find cures for people who have diseases while embryonic stem cells could only be used for pre-birth deformities that have been discovered during pregnancy. It was interesting to watch people who knew more about the issue to correct those who were misinformed. For instance, one woman said that you cannot help an embryo because if it had deformities, it would abort itself (miscarriage). All in all, the 2 who were in opposition really opposed embryonic stem cell research, but approved of human stem cell research.