Ethical attitudes on human cloning among professionals in Taiwan and the policy implications for regulation.
This research focused on understanding the attitudes toward human cloning in Taiwan among professionals in healthcare, law, and religion.


METHODS
The study was conducted utilizing a structured questionnaire.


METHODS
220 healthcare professionals from two regional hospitals located in Taipei, 351 religious professionals in the northern Taiwan and 711 legal professionals were selected by to receive questionnaires. The valid response rate is 42.1%


METHODS
The questions were generated by an expert panel and represented major arguments in the human cloning debate. There were a total of six Likert scaled questions in the questionnaire. The responses were coded from 1 to 5 with 1 representing strong opposition to human cloning, 3 representing a neutral attitude; and 5 representing a strong favorable attitude toward human cloning.


RESULTS
Healthcare professionals had the highest overall average score of 2.14 and the religious professionals had the lowest average at 1.58. All three categories of respondents' attitude toward cloning ranged from mild opposition to strong opposition to human cloning. The religious professionals were more strongly opposed to cloning. Age, education, and religion significantly influenced attitudes toward cloning. Professionals between fifty-one and sixty years old, those with less education, and Roman Catholic professionals were more strongly opposed to cloning.


CONCLUSIONS
Religious professionals were more strongly opposed to human cloning than professionals in healthcare or law. Younger professionals as an age group demonstrated less opposition to human cloning. Regulation of human cloning will be influenced by professionals in healthcare, law, and religion, and the regulatory environment chosen now will play a pivotal role in influencing the acceptance of human cloning in the future.
Yang
Che-Ming
CM
School of Healthcare Administration, Taipei Medical University, and Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital, Taiwan.
Chung
Chun-Chih
CC
Lu
Meei-Shiow
MS
Lin
Chiou-Fen
CF
Chen
Jiun-Shyan
JS
D001290:Attitude; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002977:Clergy; D019976:Cloning, Organism / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D033241:Lawyers; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011050:Policy Making; D011640:Public Policy; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan