Birth Control, Physician-Assisted Suicide, Death Penalty, Animal Testing, & Abortion “Morally Acceptable” to over 50% of Americans

More than half of Americans found the following issues covered by ProCon.org morally acceptable, according to a June 9, 2022 Gallup poll:

• birth control (92%)
• physician-assisted suicide (55%)
• the death penalty (55%)
• medical animal testing (52%), and
• abortion (52%).

There remains, however, a significant partisan divide among most of the issues. 77% of liberals believed physician-assisted suicide to be morally acceptable, while only 37% of conservatives held the same view. 67% of conservatives thought the death penalty was morally acceptable, while only 40% of liberals believed the same. And, abortion was morally acceptable to 86% of liberals, but to only 25% of conservatives.

Some consensus was found on birth control, about which 98% of liberals and 88% of conservatives agreed on moral acceptability, and medical animal testing, about which 55% of conservatives and 47% agreed on moral acceptability.

Gallup found that most behaviors in the poll have trended toward more permissive attitudes over the years, with the exception of medical animal testing and the death penalty, which have trended toward “morally wrong” since 2001.

Discussion Questions

1. Weigh in on Gallup’s poll. Which of the behaviors do you find morally acceptable (or morally wrong), and why?

2. Should Americans’ views on morality be considered when making laws? Why or why not?

3. Consider other ProCon.org topics. Which do you find to be morally acceptable? Which are morally wrong? Why?

Source

Megan Brenan, “Americans Say Birth Control, Divorce Most ‘Morally Acceptable’,” news.gallup.org, June 9, 2022