Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise

BOISE – Bishop Peter Christensen of the Diocese of Boise today affirmed a statement issued by the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that says Catholics may use the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19. Use of the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines are also morally acceptable, but only if no other vaccines comparable in safety and efficacy are available.

“Many faithful Catholics have expressed reservation about using vaccines with cell lines harvested from aborted babies,” the Bishop said. Catholics should always be very cautious about the morality and ethics of participating in any medical research with direct links to abortion, he said. Two of the vaccines – Pfizer and Moderna – do not include cells from aborted babies. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the ones administered by Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, according to hospital officials.

Bishop Peter referred to a Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities statement that says that cell lines from aborted babies were used decades ago to research vaccines to combat rubella and chicken pox. Those same cell lines can be and are reproduced indefinitely for research. While the cell lines were used to test the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the cells themselves are not present in the vaccines that patients receive.

There is, however, additional moral concern with the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines because an abortion-derived cell line was used not only for testing, but also in development and production. The Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities said it can be morally acceptable to receive a vaccine that uses abortion-derived cell lines if there are no other available vaccines available. “If it is possible to choose among a number of equally safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, the vaccine with the least connection to abortion-derived cell lines should be chosen,” the statement said.

Bishop Peter emphasized that the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities statement (which is available in both English and Spanish at usccb.org/prolife) is in accord with guidance issued four times to date by the Holy See, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“Currently, there are hundreds of vaccines for COVID-19 in development worldwide, with more than a dozen in final stages of testing, so it is important that the worldwide Church is vigilant in its protection of life, not only for the pre-born, but for those receiving the vaccines as well,” Bishop Peter said.

The Bishop commended the faithful for their attention to the always pre-eminent issue of life from conception to natural death.

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CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
 
Note on the morality of using
some anti-Covid-19 vaccines

"Those who, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses, must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means [i.e., wearning face coverings] and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent." -- Section 5
 
The question of the use of vaccines, in general, is often at the center of controversy in the forum of public opinion. In recent months, this Congregation has received several requests for guidance regarding the use of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, which, in the course of research and production, employed cell lines drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century. At the same time, diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements in the mass media by bishops, Catholic associations, and experts have raised questions about the morality of the use of these vaccines.

There is already an important pronouncement of the Pontifical Academy for Life on this issue, entitled “Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human fetuses” (5 June 2005). Further, this Congregation expressed itself on the matter with the Instruction Dignitas Personae (September 8, 2008, cf. nn. 34 and 35). In 2017, the Pontifical Academy for Life returned to the topic with a Note. These documents already offer some general directive criteria.

Since the first vaccines against Covid-19 are already available for distribution and administration in various countries, this Congregation desires to offer some indications for clarification of this matter. We do not intend to judge the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, although ethically relevant and necessary, as this evaluation is the responsibility of biomedical researchers and drug agencies. Here, our objective is only to consider the moral aspects of the use of the vaccines against Covid-19 that have been developed from cell lines derived from tissues obtained from two fetuses that were not spontaneously aborted.

1. As the Instruction Dignitas Personae states, in cases where cells from aborted fetuses are employed to create cell lines for use in scientific research, “there exist differing degrees of responsibility”[1] of cooperation in evil. For example,“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”.[2]

2. In this sense, 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.

3. The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally licit is that the kind of cooperation in evil (passive material cooperation) in the procured abortion from which these cell lines originate is, on the part of those making use of the resulting vaccines, remote. The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is a grave danger, such as the otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent[3]--in this case, the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. It must therefore be considered that, in such a case, 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.

4. In fact, the licit use of such vaccines does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses.[4] Both pharmaceutical companies and governmental health agencies are therefore encouraged to produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create problems of conscience for either health care providers or the people to be vaccinated.

5. At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one's own health, but also on the duty to pursue 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, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses, must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable.

6. Finally, there is also a moral imperative for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that vaccines, which are effective and safe from a medical point of view, as well as ethically acceptable, are also accessible to the poorest countries in a manner that is not costly for them. The 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.[5]

The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 17 December 2020, examined the present Note and ordered its publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 21 December 2020, Liturgical Memorial of Saint Peter Canisius.
 

Link to Vatican Document