Is it morally acceptable to receive a COVID-19 vaccine? I’ve heard that some of the vaccines are connected to abortion. Recently, someone reached out to me with moral questions about the COVID-19 vaccines which are coming out now and their connection to abortions by which a baby was murdered—one in 1973 and another in 1985. I hope that the thoughts and insights here will be helpful for your thinking through this issue.
The National Catholic Bioethics Center writes that the hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines in development can, regarding their connection to abortion, “be divided into three groups based on a resource produced by the Charlotte Lozier Institute:
1. Those that do not use abortion-derived cell lines in any phase of design, manufacture or testing
2. Those that do not use abortion-derived cell lines in the manufacturing process but used an aborted fetal cell line at one point in development, such as confirmatory testing
3. Those that use abortion-derived cell lines in more than one phase of development and, in particular, the manufacturing process” (National Catholic Bioethics Center, “Points to Consider on the Use of COVID-19 Vaccines,” Dec. 8, 2020, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e3ada1a6a2e8d6a131d1dcd/t/5fd3ce39e679895094dd1e49/1607716409962/NCBCVaccineStatementFINAL.pdf).
Group 1: No Connection to Abortion
Vaccines in the first group are the ones that we want to use. As of this writing (Jan. 3, 2021), there are vaccines currently in clinical trials which do not use abortion-derived cell lines in any phase. One of these morally acceptable vaccines (Bharat Biotech/Indian Council of Medical Research) was just today approved for use in India. It is unknown when a vaccine with no connection to abortion will be approved in the United States.
Once these vaccines are available to us however, Catholics who desire a COVID-19 vaccine should get one of these (A chart provided by the Charlotte Lozier Institute gives a helpful analysis. COVID-19-Vaccine-Candidates-and-Abortion-Derived- Cell-Lines.pdf (pcdn.co), accessed Jan. 2, 2021: https://s27589.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/COVID-19-Vaccine-Candidates-and-Abortion-Derived-Cell-Lines.pdf).
A good Catholic who would otherwise vaccinate may, considering the risks, choose to refrain from taking a COVID-19 vaccine until one with no connection to abortion is available to him (As Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, writes: “There would be no real moral quandary if ethical and effective COVID vaccines with no connection to abortion existed. In that case, the moral choice would be clear: people who wish to be vaccinated must take the ethically produced vaccine. But our current situation presents the dilemma of whether individuals should accept and use ethically problematic vaccines that are the only vaccines licensed for use at this time.” “Point: The Current COVID Vaccines Are Problematic But Permissible,” Catholic Answers Dec. 23, 2020, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/point-the-current-covid-vaccines-are-problematic-but-permissible, emphasis added).
Group 2: Tested on Cells Connected to Abortion The first two vaccines distributed in the United States (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) fall into the second group. Neither of these vaccines were designed or produced with any connection at all to cells from aborted babies. Then, after each vaccine was developed, it was tested on cells from abortion-derived cell lines.
Testing the vaccine on cells derived from an aborted baby was wrong. But that testing isn’t intrinsic to the vaccine itself.
For example, U.S. army soldiers use M4 carbine guns. Those are put to good use in protecting the country and the world from wickedness. Someone might get an M4 and use it to murder other people. That would be an evil action, but would have no bearing on the gun. In fact, the U.S. army could even order an operation using the M4s which commanded something evil. In neither case would we say, “M4s are evil and we can’t use them,” even if they were used in an evil manner. We could even think of a crazy situation where the inventor of the M4 tested the first ones on people. That would be gravely evil, but it wouldn’t make the M4 a bad weapon.
I think that it’s the same thing with those vaccines. They were developed and are produced in a moral manner, but were at one point used in a bad way. I don’t think that their use in a bad way (on cells from aborted babies for confirmatory testing) makes the vaccine itself bad; it means that the scientists who used these vaccines in such a way committed an evil act (for which we pray that they repent).
Those companies and researchers, however, do not have any real external pressure to stop the wicked deed of testing their vaccines on abortion-derived cell lines. If Catholics were to refuse such a vaccine, then companies would have financial incentive to focus on the production of those morally acceptable vaccines in Group 1. In summary, there is no moral problem with these vaccines themselves. However, the refusal of these vaccines would disincentivize their being tested on abortion-derived cell lines and therefore options in Group 1—once they become available—should be used by those who choose vaccination. A good Catholic may however, considering the risks, choose to be vaccinated with a vaccine from Group 2.
Group 3: Developed and Produced with Cells Connected to Abortion The forthcoming Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine falls into this group, which has significant problems. Cell-lines from an aborted baby were actually used in the development and now in the production of these vaccines, which is wicked. Kidney tissue was taken from an aborted baby in the Netherlands in 1973. Cells from this tissue (the HEK-293 cell line) were replicated in a laboratory and have created many, many new cells in the past 50 years. The cells used in these vaccines are thousands of generations removed from the original cells harvested from a baby murdered in the womb. Nonetheless, the cells used in these vaccines are a direct result of the harvest of cells from a baby murdered in the womb 48 years ago.
Additionally, bits of this baby’s DNA remain in the vaccine. According to the National Catholic Bioethics Center, “When vaccines are grown in these cell lines, the cells are filtered out when the vaccine is extracted. Tiny fragments of DNA from the abortion-derived cells or other cells used are in the vaccine doses produced in this way” (National Catholic Bioethics Center, “COVID-19 Vaccines”).
Recent statements from the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have indicated that, because they judge “the otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent—in this case, the pandemic spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19” to be “a grave danger,” “all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive. It should be emphasized, however, that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Note on the Morality of Using Some Anti-Covid-19 Vaccines,” Dec. 21, 2020, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20201221_nota-vaccini-anticovid_en.html, emphasis original).
The argument goes something like this: Using body parts from murdered babies to heal others is wrong. I can’t kill you and take your heart just because I need a heart transplant. These cells (from the HEK-293 cell line) are however not parts of the baby. They are descendants of the cells taken from the aborted baby. In addition, this murder did not happen yesterday. It happened 48 years ago. The argument is that, while a person taking the vaccine today would be benefiting from a grave evil done in the past, the person taking the vaccine today had nothing to do with the grave evil, and maybe wasn’t even born when the baby was killed. Since the person today had nothing to do with the evil of this abortion and can’t go back and change it, the argument goes that if this vaccine is both needed and the only option, a person could take it so long as she clearly voiced her objection to the use of cell-lines originating with an abortion in vaccine production.
Here the question arises as to how one would clearly voice her objection. As with those vaccines in Group 2, companies and researchers producing vaccines in Group 3 do not have substantial external pressure to stop the wicked deed of using abortion-derived cell lines as they design, develop, produce and test vaccines. If Catholics were to refuse such a vaccine, that would be a very powerful way of voicing our objections and companies would have financial incentive to focus on the production of more morally acceptable vaccines. Nonetheless, the Vatican has instructed us that a good Catholic may, considering the risks, receive a vaccine in Group 3 if no other option is readily available (“When ethically irreproachable COVID-19 vaccines are not available-e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients, or where their distribution is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions, or when various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated-it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process”-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “COVID-19 Vaccines,” emphasis original).
Finally, the Vatican has also explicitly recognized that “practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary” but that those who abstain from vaccination must be aware of the common good and do their utmost to avoid “becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “COVID-19 Vaccines,” emphasis added).
Many of us are still working through our thoughts on vaccines in Group 3. It makes sense that the person receiving a vaccine now had nothing to do with the abortion in the 1973 or 1985. But, at the same time, something doesn’t seem right about using a vaccine which does truly derive from aborted baby cells. So if you’re struggling to formulate your thoughts/feelings/moral reactions to it, that’s o.k. And, in the end, the choice to get or not to get any of these COVID-19 vaccines remains your own. Pray, be courageous, and follow your well-formed conscience.
I hope that these reflections are helpful. I realize that much more could be said about vaccines, COVID-19, the church, etc. But I hope that this small reflection is helpful to you as you think out the specific issue of the currently or soon to be available COVID-19 vaccines and their connection to the grave evil of abortion.