The Moral Dilemma Of Vaccination
Recently a grandmother asked me if her granddaughter should have the usual childhood vaccinations. The question was not asked out of fear of side effects or complications of the vaccines, rather, for clarification of the Church’s position on vaccination. She understood many of these standard vaccines were developed in tissues taken from aborted fetuses.
The medical community supports the use of vaccinations to help prevent serious illnesses and it has worked hard to allay many misconceptions. An example is the proposed association between measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. This association has been found to be invalid. Still, safety concerns make up over two-thirds of the reasons parents refuse vaccinations for their children.
The Catholic Church clearly understands the value of immunization. On the other hand it also recognizes the moral and ethical dilemma presented to faithful Catholics in not wanting to be complicit with the evil of abortion by immunizing with certain vaccines. If you have not heard or read of this moral quandary until now, don’t feel alone. Many parents are unaware; even many physicians lack knowledge of which vaccines were prepared from induced abortions.
The pharmaceutical companies in their descriptive literature camouflage the information about where human cell lines are derived in such a way that this information is difficult to extract. The primary direction of parents is to have their children protected against potentially deadly illnesses and of physicians to help provide that protection. Yet, the question remains whether the person requesting or receiving the vaccination and the person providing the vaccine is complicit in some manner with the evil of abortion.
This idea of cooperation in evil, especially in this setting, is a difficult subject to explain. It has its own vocabulary and challenging definitions. I will try to simplify the matter by referencing a letter from the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome which addresses the use of “tainted” vaccines. Firstly, the original tissues used were obtained from an induced abortion occurring over 50 years ago. Although the cell line has been maintained the actual tissue no longer exists, only its genetic information. Any “participation” in the abortion is considered quite remote.
Secondly, the cooperation implied by having a vaccination is indirect, that is, the vaccination does not involve anyone who actually performed or helped perform the abortion. More importantly the intent of the person seeking vaccination is not the taking of a human life through abortion, but the prevention of a disease.
Lastly, despite the Church’s admonition against using an intrinsically evil act to achieve a good end (the means do not justify the ends); there is the need to protect society from harm (promote the common good.) The result is a struggle of going against one’s conscience by vaccinating or not vaccinating and putting individuals, especially children, and perhaps society as a whole at risk.
The wording of this communication, in its conclusion, states the Catholic Church permits the use of these compromised vaccines when there are no alternatives. It also strongly urges the faithful not to passively cooperate by accepting the status quo, but to go further by opposing the manufacture and use of vaccines derived from aborted fetal tissue. We can start by asking our healthcare provider to vaccinate with vaccines produced by alternative methods.
Chickenpox, hepatitis A, and the MMR vaccines among others to date do not have alternatives. Their preparation is tied to aborted fetal cell lines. In contrast polio and shingles vaccines have alternatively derived counterparts which we should seek to use. The flu vaccine is not prepared from human tissue and is therefore not part of this discussion.
The hope is that pharmaceutical companies involved with the development and production of vaccines, through our actions, will no longer continue to use aborted human tissue cell lines. Until then, I invite you to further study this pertinent issue to aid formation of your conscience in reconciling destruction of human life against the need for protection from preventable diseases.
