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A new national poll conducted in the aftermath of actor Michael J. Fox’s televised appeals for stem-cell research shows that support for studying embryonic stem cells fell in the past year.
The drop from 58 percent to 54 percent this year interrupts the growing support tracked by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Life Sciences Survey. The percentage of those strongly or somewhat opposed rose from 32 percent in 2005 to 37 percent this year. Slightly more men than women favor the research.
The annual questionnaire released today was conducted by phone with 1,000 adults nationwide from Nov. 7-21. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"I don’t think anybody was anticipating that the three-year trend would not continue," said VCU Vice Provost of Life Sciences Thomas Huff.
Just prior to the Nov. 7 election, Fox made controversial commercials drawing attention to state-ballot initiatives and politicians supporting embryonic stem-cell research. The commercials spotlighted his debilitation from Parkinson’s, one of the diseases many believe could benefit from the research.
Since 2001, the VCU survey has investigated attitudes on stem-cell research...