This one’s sponsored by the Catholic bishops. It turns out that when you ask people if they favor spending taxpayer dollars on research that would destroy “live embryos in their first week of development,” a bare majority of 51.6 percent says no and 36 percent says yes. Opposition has increased slightly since last August, when the bishops last commissioned a poll.

Here’s another question: “Stem cells for research can be obtained by destroying human embryos. They can also be obtained from adults, from placentas left over from live births, and in other ways that do no harm to the donor.

“Scientists disagree on which source may end up being most successful in treating diseases. How would you prefer your tax dollars to be used this year for stem cell research?”

A majority of 60.2 percent favored “supporting research using adult stem cells and other alternatives, to see if there is no need to destroy human embryos for research” over “supporting all methods, including those that require destroying

human embryos, to see which will be most successful,” which got 22.4 percent.

What I take away from the poll: Public opinion on this issue depends strongly on wording, which is a reason to doubt that there is much meaningful public opinion on the issue.