The Archdiocese of New Orleans (USA) noted that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine for COVID-19 is “morally compromised” and advised Catholics to use ethical alternatives if available.
The new vaccine, manufactured by Janssen, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine division, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with an emergency use authorization issued Saturday, Feb. 27.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute, the group’s research arm provided by Susan B. Anthony List, had determined that the vaccine in question used abortion-derived cell lines in the design and development, production, and laboratory testing.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans declared Feb. 26 that the vaccine was “morally compromised” because of its connection to abortion.
However, he said the other two vaccines available for COVID-19 are “morally acceptable,” referring to those from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
Faced with the possibility that no ethical alternative is available, the Archdiocese of New Orleans indicated that it does not prohibit Catholics from receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The decision to receive a vaccine for COVID-19 “remains a decision of individual conscience when consulted with the health care provider,” the Archdiocese said.
“The Archdiocese of New Orleans, in light of the Vatican’s guidance, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic National Center for Bioethics say that although there was some laboratory testing that went using the abortion-derived cell line, the two vaccines currently available from Pfizer and Moderna are not based on abortion cell lines in the manufacturing process and may therefore be morally acceptable to Catholics, since the connection to abortion is extremely remote, ”reads his statement.
Ethics experts noted that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were “ethically indisputable,” as their connection to abortions in the design phase was extremely remote. However, some laboratory tests were performed for vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, meanwhile, used aborted fetal cell lines at all stages.
“It is under the same guidance as the archdiocese of instructing Catholics that the latest Janssen / Johnson & Johnson vaccine is morally compromised, as it uses the abortion-derived cell line in the development and production of vaccine, as well as in tests, “the Archdiocese said.
This ethical issue is similar to that of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which also used an abortion-derived cell line in the development and testing of its product.
The Archdiocese emphasized that “in no way does the position of the Church diminish the wrongdoings of those who decided to use abortion cell lines to make vaccines.”
“In doing so, we advise that if the Modern or Pfizer vaccine is available, Catholics should choose to receive any of these vaccines instead of receiving the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of their widespread use of cell lines. resulting from abortion, “he stressed.
The cell line derived from an abortion decades ago, called HEK-293, is commonly used in testing and development of pharmaceuticals.
The statement of the Archdiocese agrees with the text of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith entitled “Note on the morality of the use of some vaccines against COVID-19”, of December 21, 2020.
This document explains that “when ethically irreproachable COVID-19 vaccines are not available (for example, in countries where vaccines are not made available to physicians and patients without ethical problems or where their distribution is more difficult due to the special conditions of storage and transport, or when different types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but, on the part of the health authorities, citizens are not allowed to choose the vaccine to be inoculated) it is morally acceptable to use COVID-19 vaccines that have used aborted fetal cell lines in their research and production process”.
The document explains that “the fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally lawful is that the type of cooperation to the wrong (passive material cooperation) of abortion caused from which these same cell lines come, on the part of those who use the resulting vaccines, it is remote “.
Thus, “the moral duty to avoid this passive material cooperation is not binding if it exists a serious danger, such as the spread, otherwise uncontrollable, of a serious pathogen: In this case, the pandemic spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus caused by Covid-19 “.
One of the promoted advantages of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is that it does not require specialized refrigeration and can be administered in a single dose, making it more attractive to some health professionals than the Modern and Pfizer vaccines. These vaccines require deep-freeze storage and are administered in two doses.
Translated and adapted by Diego López Marina. Originally published in CNA.