A note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was approved by Pope Francis, gives the green light during the pandemic to the use of vaccines produced with cell lines derived from two aborted fetuses in the 1960s.
For Vatican News
“It is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used aborted fetal cell lines in their research and production process.”
Due to the current pandemic situation, “all vaccines recognized as safe and effective clinics can be used with good conscience with the knowledge that the use of these vaccines does not constitute a formal cooperation with abortion in from which the cells used in the production of vaccines are derived “.
The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) made these statements in a note signed by the prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, and the secretary, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi. The text was explicitly approved by Pope Francis on December 17 and published on Monday.
Clarify doubts
The CDF document, which was published when many countries are preparing to implement vaccination campaigns, intervenes with authority to clarify doubts and questions that have arisen from sometimes contradictory statements on the subject.
The “Note on the Morality of the Use of Some Anti-Covid-19 Vaccines” recalls three previous pronouncements on the same subject: one from the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) in 2005; the CDF instruction a person in 2008; and, another PAV note in 2017.
Moral aspects
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says it does not intend to “judge the safety and efficacy” of current vaccines against Covid-19, which is the responsibility of biomedical researchers and drug agencies. Rather, the CDF focuses on the moral aspects of receiving vaccines developed using tissue lines from tissues obtained from two fetuses that were aborted in the 1960s.
The Instruction a person, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, noted that “there are different degrees of responsibility,” because “in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are used, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them it is not the same as those who have no voice in this decision. “
Therefore, argues the note released Monday in the 2008 Instruction Summary, “when no ethically irrevocable Covid-19 vaccines are available,” it is “morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines of aborted fetuses research and production process “.
“Remote cooperation”
The CDF says the reason for considering these vaccines morally lawful is the “kind of cooperation” in the evil of abortion, which is “remote” on the part of those who receive the vaccine.
Therefore, the “moral duty to avoid this passive material cooperation is not obligatory”, as there is a serious danger, in the form of “uncontrollable spread of a serious pathological agent”.
The Covid-19 pandemic, the CDF says, meets this requirement.
“In this case, all vaccines recognized as safe and effective clinics can be used with good conscience with the knowledge that the use of these vaccines does not constitute a formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used are derived. in vaccine production. ”
It is not a legitimation of abortion
The Congregation clarifies that “the morally lawful use of this type of vaccine, in the particular conditions that do so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, not even indirect, of the practice of abortion and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice those who make use of these vaccines. ”Nor should it imply a moral approval of the use of cell lines from aborted fetuses.
The CDF note calls on pharmaceutical companies and government health agencies to “produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not raise awareness.”
Voluntary vaccination
At the same time, the Congregation recalls that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and must therefore be voluntary.”
The morale of vaccination, he points out, depends both on the duty to protect one’s health and on the pursuit of the common good. “In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed.”
Those who for reasons of conscience reject vaccines produced with aborted fetal cell lines, however, should “do everything possible to prevent, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, from becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent “.
Distribution in poor countries
Finally, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says it is “a moral imperative” for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that effective and ethically acceptable vaccines are accessible “to the poorest countries in a way that it is not expensive “for them.”
“Lack of access to vaccines, otherwise, would become another sign of discrimination and injustice that condemns poor countries to continue living in health, economic and social poverty.”