The More Things Change...
The leading annual public opinion survey concerning biotechnology was recently released [PDF]. I anticipated the latest Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences Survey more than usual this year, as it was the first (and so far, only) poll conducted after the announcement that researchers had made skin cells act like embryonic stem cells. But the deeper I dug into the data, the less relevance I found. For the most part, the results are very similar to last year's. One of the few news reports on the poll was forced to grasp at straws, claiming that while overall support for embryonic stem cell research remains steady, strong support is declining. Although I agree that embryonic stem cell research is waning as a political issue, even this relatively minor change was mostly evident in last year's results.
Yet this doesn't mean that the isolation of fully potent stem cells using neither embryos nor cloning will not affect public opinion. I concur with VCU's Thomas Huff, who believes that it will take some time before the public internalizes the new possibilities: "It's still a little early to get a full impact of how the public is understanding it and how they're reacting to it."
What's more, these results concern a political issue during a presidential (and congressional) election year, and public opinion and political rhetoric operate by different mechanisms. While the former has apparently changed little so far, the landscape of the latter has significantly shifted. A vocal proponent of embryonic stem cell research, for example, would be quickly disarmed by an opponent, who would assert that embryos are no longer needed. Regardless of the scientific truth behind such a rebuttal (and we at the Center believe that embryonic stem cell research should continue and Bush's restrictions should be lifted), it's not surprising that the only presidential candidates to mention stem cells in the six weeks since the announcement of the new stem cell method are those that oppose embryonic stem cell research. There's no reason to think this dynamic will change soon.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: