Marlowe's Shade

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Gallup Poll Claims Three Out of Four Americans Support "Euthanasia"

Actually, what the respondents to this Gallup poll agreed to was this statement:
"When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?"

The Gallup poll clearly equated this scenario with euthanasia, when in fact what they are refering to is physician assisted suicide.

It gets worse.

Even evangelical Christians said they backed euthanasia, at 61%, as did 71% of rural residents.

There is a bit of a gender gap, with 84% of males supporting euthanasia and 66% of females. Weekly churchgoers also support the concept (51%). So do self-described conservatives (63%), though that trails liberals (82%).


It's always tempting to dismiss polls one doesn't like and certainly recent history has shown that polls can misrepresent actual public opinion. But Gallup is one of the better polls in methodology and of all of them least likely to be influenced by a liberal media bias. There are obviously flaws in this poll, and background on the polling hasn't been disclosed. But even if the results were off by 10% this would still be a shocking poll.

The results from "evangelical Christians" are particularly disappointing. But we probably shouldn't be surprised. According to the Barna Group only about half of Protestant ministers profess a belief in absolute moral true. Lately I've been blaming our culture and political system for Terri Schiavo's death, but perhaps it's time for Christians to look at the beam in our own eye.

This poll explains why most politicians didn't have the political will to save Terri Schiavo, and why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is keeping an "open mind" on California's assisted suicide bill. It show that the millions of dollars that George Soros and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invested in changing public opinion and policy has paid off in spades. And unless an aggressive campaign to inform the public about the abuses of the European euthanasia experiment is launched quickly, legal euthanasia will be coming soon to a hospital near you.
papijoe 7:47 AM
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