I recently saw a fairly interesting report of a Gallup poll that attempted to assess Americans' moral compass. It was pretty limited—I think respondents were only asked to define if they thought a certain thing was morally right or wrong (in most of these categories, I find myself thinking it's not so cut-and-dry). But many of the results surprised me! What do you think? Here's what the article reported:
Ninety-two percent of Americans who responded to a recent Gallup poll say having an affair is morally wrong [surprise: the other 8% said it's ok? hehe. Also, I was surprised it ranked so highly above some of the things below], more than any of these other deeds:
Divorce: 30 percent say it's wrong [higher than I would have guessed for how the question was apparently phrased]
The death penalty: 30 percent [Also higher, to my pleasant surprise—though I hope it gets much higher! I so do not understand how the death penalty is at all acceptable, other than when the person is really, truly a continuing threat to society, even from behind bars. Dreadful.]
Divorce: 30 percent say it's wrong [higher than I would have guessed for how the question was apparently phrased]
The death penalty: 30 percent [Also higher, to my pleasant surprise—though I hope it gets much higher! I so do not understand how the death penalty is at all acceptable, other than when the person is really, truly a continuing threat to society, even from behind bars. Dreadful.]
[A side note, though: I've often wondered if the death penalty could be appropriate for child molesters. Does that sound crazy, that I find it reprehensible against murderers, but maybe reasonable against child molesters...? First of all, nothing makes me angrier than a person being evil enough to hurt a child. Second, I can imagine that, unlike murder, the death penalty might actually help prevent child abuse. My mom thinks child molesters should be castrated from the first offense. Awesome! Too bad the Supreme Court would surely call it "cruel and unusual punishment," like hard labor is. And being killed isn't?]
Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur: 35 percent
Gambling: 36 percent [wow! Other than other Mormons, I can't think of anyone who I'd guess would think gambling is morally wrong.... 36%!]
Medical research using stem cells from human embryos: 36 percent [I was glad to see that lower than I would have guessed....]
Medical testing on animals: 36 percent [I wonder what people are picturing here.... Could a whole 36% of Americans really think we shouldn't use animals to make advances in medicine? Without animal testing, we'd all still be dying when we're 40.... As I'm typing this, Matt is actually packing his bag to go do surgeries on mice and pigs to help figure out pulmonary hypertension, particularly for pediatric patients. That's kind of a funny concurrence. Hehe.]
Sex between an unmarried man and woman: 40 percent [40%!! Are you kidding me? That's actually pretty cool! Well...I guess.... If you consider that everyone fornicates anyway, maybe this stat is a little depressing.... :)]
Having a baby outside of marriage: 45 percent
Gay or lesbian relations: 47 percent
Doctor-assisted suicide: 56 percent
Abortion: 56 percent [a prime example of how this study might be too limited.... so many scenarios to consider here!]
Cloning animals: 63 percent
Suicide: 80 percent [again, too many different scenarios to consider...]
Cloning humans: 88 percent [And what are people picturing here? I picture cloning people for fun reproduction, and I can't imagine 12% thinking that's ok! But maybe people are imagining cloning to produce 16-celled embryos for stem cells...? If a Gallup pollster asked you if you thought cloning humans was morally wrong, what would you picture?]
Polygamy: 91 percent
Married men and women having an affair: 92 percent
Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur: 35 percent
Gambling: 36 percent [wow! Other than other Mormons, I can't think of anyone who I'd guess would think gambling is morally wrong.... 36%!]
Medical research using stem cells from human embryos: 36 percent [I was glad to see that lower than I would have guessed....]
Medical testing on animals: 36 percent [I wonder what people are picturing here.... Could a whole 36% of Americans really think we shouldn't use animals to make advances in medicine? Without animal testing, we'd all still be dying when we're 40.... As I'm typing this, Matt is actually packing his bag to go do surgeries on mice and pigs to help figure out pulmonary hypertension, particularly for pediatric patients. That's kind of a funny concurrence. Hehe.]
Sex between an unmarried man and woman: 40 percent [40%!! Are you kidding me? That's actually pretty cool! Well...I guess.... If you consider that everyone fornicates anyway, maybe this stat is a little depressing.... :)]
Having a baby outside of marriage: 45 percent
Gay or lesbian relations: 47 percent
Doctor-assisted suicide: 56 percent
Abortion: 56 percent [a prime example of how this study might be too limited.... so many scenarios to consider here!]
Cloning animals: 63 percent
Suicide: 80 percent [again, too many different scenarios to consider...]
Cloning humans: 88 percent [And what are people picturing here? I picture cloning people for fun reproduction, and I can't imagine 12% thinking that's ok! But maybe people are imagining cloning to produce 16-celled embryos for stem cells...? If a Gallup pollster asked you if you thought cloning humans was morally wrong, what would you picture?]
Polygamy: 91 percent
Married men and women having an affair: 92 percent
Anyway, what do you think of all of it? Interesting, no? :)
2 comments:
I agree there's too much gray in most of the areas for a straight yes or no answer. And I can see both sides to all the questions, even animal testing. It's easy to justify if you believe that God created animals for the benefit of man, but if you consider all life equally sacred it gets more complicated then. It used to be acceptable to do testing on the mentally handicapped or people of different races too, but I could never condone that even if we lived to 150 because of it.
Still it's interesting to see what the general population thinks.
Oh my goodness, if someone against animal testing actually used testing mentally handicapped or certain races as part of their argument, that would be . . . THE most appalling thing EVER!!!! I just hope no one actually thinks those two situations are at all relevant to each other....
I actually have a blog post coming about "humane treatment of animals." Hehe. Funny that you commented specifically on that! People say the "all life is equally sacred" thing, but that just doesn't make sense. Does the life of a bacteria matter like the life of a person? Is it immoral to kill bacteria to save a human being? Obviously, there's a spectrum of sorts where the sanctity of life is concerned. Which doesn't mean we can do whatever we darn well please to animals—or that a person can't decide, hey, I'm not going to have animals killed just so I, personally, have food to eat, or other personal decisions—but to value an animal's life JUST AS MUCH as the life of a fellow human being is seriously concerning. Seriously.... Concerning....
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