Attitudes of Schoolchildren towards Bioethical Morality

In our discussion of the social narrative, we address such issues as in vitro fertilization, human cloning and gender reassignment. These diagnoses are based on the results of sociological studies and nationwide surveys carried out in the two decades of the 21st century. In the past few years, the views of schoolchildren on bioethical issues have undergone progressive liberalization. Diverse views on important bioethical issues were found among Polish high school students surveyed in November and December 2022 and January 2023. In vitro fertilization was judged acceptable by 63.8% of the surveyed schoolchildren, “it depends” – 17.2%, unacceptable – 7.4%, difficult to say – 11.6%; human cloning (respectively) – 25.7%, 21.7%, 21.9%, 30.7%; gender reassignment – 42.2%, 15.7%, 28.3%, 13.8%. The average rate of bioethical issues analyzed was as follows: acceptable – 43.9%, “it depends” – 18.2%, unacceptable – 19.2%, difficult to say – 18.7%. Combining the first two responses, we get a rate of 62.1% of those who allow these behaviors as excusable (permissible). The Catholic Church’s position on bioethical issues was supported by slightly more than a fifth of the schoolchildren surveyed.