General statistical information was gathered. Such a high familiarity with disease may be responsible for the favourable opinion of prenatal genetic screening. This also explains the exceptionally common eugenic reasoning among the respondents who support prenatal genetic screening. There were some extra questions about disease in the Russian survey that were not in the general survey. The feelings about people suffering from these diseases were also asked.
Alcoholism is a major problem in Russia, that is why it was included.
The feelings about people with AIDS are shown in Table 3. The respondents in Russia actually seemed more sympathetic than in the other countries in the survey. The majority of Russians feel that AIDS will increase in the future. As shown in Figure 1, respondents also expressed extreme feelings towards an AIDS infected friend or spouse. An interesting result is the amount of trust that people had in authorities who were making a statement about the safety of a product of biotechnology, for example a new drug.