"Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" but to Others DON'T TOUCH!: The Current Gallup Poll Study on Social and Medical Ethics Issues

Ethics is like that. What ethical decision may seem to one beholder as the most obvious right thing to accept or do, to another eye that decision is totally wrong and may pose hazards. And yet opinions about an ethical issue are open to change as demonstrated by the latest (May 2013)Gallup poll of Americans of various ages regarding a number of current "hot topic" ethical issues. The issues covered were: pornography, sex between teenagers, gay or lesbian relations, sex between an unmarried man and woman, having a baby outside of marriage, polygamy, abortion, cloning humans, cloning animals, gambling, doctor-assisted suicide, suicide, married men and women having an affair, divorce, buying and wearing clothes made of animal fur, medical research using stem cells from human embryos, the death penalty, medical testing on animals. And what is interesting is that acceptance/non-acceptance "what is ethical and what is not" polling show general changes not only over the period of the recent years polling has been carried out but also significant changes amongst specific age groups. The  Gallup study is summarized in the following excerpt:

Americans' fundamental views on several issues that define the nation's culture have changed in important ways since the start of the last decade. Gallup trends by age show that (in every case) increasing acceptance of several matters relating to sexual relations, as well as divorce and stem cell research, have moved closer to the views held by the youngest generation of Americans. In some cases, this has resulted in transformative change, with majority acceptance emerging in the past decade, and in others, it has resulted in expanded majority acceptance. Pornography and teenage sex now stand out as issues that could emerge as more broadly accepted in the future. However, this will largely hinge on whether today's young adults maintain these views into middle age -- i.e., teen parenting -- or whether they soften. Currently, overall acceptance of both is low, but this masks large generational gulfs with nearly half of young adults supportive versus roughly one in five adults aged 55 and older.

Go to the above link, read the full study data and then return and present YOUR opinion on one or more of these ethics topics. Even if you write anonymously, you might indicate your age for comparison with the Gallup statistics. This thread, if we get some responses, should be interesting. ..Maurice.

Graphic: Poison Oak photographed by me Towsley Canyon, Santa Clarita, California.