No ‘morally relevant’ cooperation between vaccines and abortion

I am writing about Ben Nuttall-Smith’s Oct. 12 letter “Vaccines and double standards” published in The B.C. Catholic in response to Natalie Sonnen’s Oct. 5 article “Catholics have a role in demanding ethical vaccines.”

The letter stated that although the Catholic Church is opposed to abortion, the Pontifical Academy for Life concluded in 2005 that parents are free to allow their children to receive vaccines made from fetal tissue, while also calling for the development of ethical vaccines.

I’d like to draw to your attention two more recent documents, one of them an update to the 2005 Note.

In 2008 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published an important document, or “istruzione,” called Dignitatis Personae on certain bioethical questions.

Paragraph 34/35 speaks about vaccines:

“Of course, within this general picture there exist differing degrees of responsibility. Grave reasons may be morally proportionate to justify the use of such ‘biological material.’ Thus, for example, danger to the health of children could permit parents to use a vaccine which was developed using cell lines of illicit origin, while keeping in mind that everyone has the duty to make known their disagreement and to ask that their health-care system make other types of vaccines available. Moreover, in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision.”

This istruzione comprehensively addresses all the main issues of bioethics.

In 2017 the Pontifical Academy published an updated note that was shorter and clearer than our 2005 document:

In particular this note affirms:

In 2005 the Pontifical Academy for Life published a document entitled: ‘Moral reflections about vaccines prepared from cells of aborted human fetuses’ which, in the light of medical advances and current conditions of vaccine preparation, could soon be revised and updated.

Especially in consideration of the fact that the cell lines currently used are very distant from the original abortions and no longer imply that bond of moral cooperation indispensable for an ethically negative evaluation of their use.

On the other hand, the moral obligation to guarantee the vaccination coverage necessary for the safety of others is no less urgent, especially the safety (of) more vulnerable subjects such as pregnant women and those affected by immunodeficiency who cannot be vaccinated against these diseases.

As for the question of the vaccines that used or may have used cells coming from voluntarily aborted fetuses in their preparation, it must be specified that the “wrong” in the moral sense lies in the actions, not in the vaccines or the material itself.

The technical characteristics of the production of the vaccines most commonly used in childhood lead us to exclude that there is a morally relevant cooperation between those who use these vaccines today and the practice of voluntary abortion. Hence, we believe that all clinically recommended vaccinations can be used with a clear conscience and that the use of such vaccines does not signify some sort of cooperation with voluntary abortion.

While (continuing) the commitment to ensuring that every vaccine has no connection in its preparation to any material of originating from an abortion, the moral responsibility to vaccinate is reiterated in order to avoid serious health risks for children and the general population.

This 2017 brief Note seems to me more effective and clear and could help our Catholic world to a better understanding about the issues related to the vaccines.

Your readers will find on our website news and information about our documents and the activity of the Academy, including two recent Notes about COVID-19, Pandemic and universal brotherhood and Humana Communitas in the era of the pandemic. Untimely reflections on the rebirth of life). We are also preparing a third about COVID-19 and the elderly from a worldwide perspective.

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Fabrizio Mastrofini is media manager for the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome.