Background: The paper presents an analysis of opinions concerning the use of stem cells (SCs), using tools developed in the field of moral psychology.
Objectives: To determine the factors that affect beliefs regarding the status of SCs and to evaluate the impact of these factors. The paper investigated whether factors of a moral nature prevail over the knowledge that makes it possible to use SCs in practice.
Material and methods: The analysis of psychological perception is based on a study carried out on a group of 172 Polish and 161 English-speaking first-year medical students. The study was conducted between 2005 and 2007, and in 2019 at the Poznan University of Medical Sciences (Poland).
Results: Knowledge is not the main factor that differentiates approaches towards the use of SCs. The importance of religion in the lives of the respondents has a significant impact on the perception of the use of SCs, and is associated with indications of ethically saturated terms. Focusing on the usefulness of cells is associated with lesser significance of religion and greater value placed on scientific knowledge.
Conclusions: Although the research results indicate a correlation between religiousness and the respondents' perception of the use of SCs, further research is needed into the relationship between the influence of scientific knowledge on views related to SCs.
Keywords: bioethics; education; medical ethics; moral psychology; stem cells.