The Catholic bishops have commissioned a poll of their own. The following question was asked of 1,001 adults: “Stem cells are the basic cells from which all of a person’s tissues and organs develop. Congress is considering the question of federal funding for experiments using stem cells from human embryos. The live embryos would be destroyed in their first week of development to obtain these cells. Do you support or oppose using your federal tax dollars for such experiments?” The result: 46.9 percent opposed the subsidy, and 43.3 percent supported it.

They were also asked this 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?” Only 23.0 percent said that all methods should be used, “including those that require destroying human embryos, to see which will be most successful.” In contrast, 61.4 percent wanted to pursue only the non-embryonic approaches.

Other questions found strong (82.1 percent) opposition to allowing cloning for infertile couples to have children, and nearly as strong opposition (79.8 percent) to the use of “human cloning to to create a supply of human embryos to be destroyed in medical research.”

The bishops’ poll question is loaded–although no more so than many of the other polls on the subject. What it emonstrates is that the public’s answer to these questions depends strongly on the wording. When the possible benefits of embryo research for sick people are not mentioned, the fact that the research “destroy[s]” “live” embryos is mentioned, and “your federal tax dollars” are discussed, the public opposes it. (It could have been more loaded: An even larger number would probably have taken the bishops’ side if they had asked about research that “kills” rather than just “destroys” human embryos.)

The news for opponents of the subsidies is not all good. When the bishops asked an almost identical question in 2001, 69.9 percent of the public opposed taxpayer funding for the research. The opponents have lost a lot of ground in these three years.

This poll is a very useful corrective to the steady barrage of stacked polls we’ve seen from the other side. Most people do not have strong and firmly held views on these questions, which is why the choice of poll wording has such a large effect. And the issue can be framed in ways that win majority support for pro-lifers.