“the lawfulness of the use of these vaccines [derived from cell lines of aborted babies] should not be misinterpreted as a declaration of the lawfulness of their production, marketing and use, but is to be understood as being a passive material cooperation and, in its mildest and remotest sense, also active, morally justified as an extrema ratio..”—The Pontifical Academy for Life
INTRODUCTION
At 90.7 years, I am in the high risk cohort for covid-19. My wife, 85.6, with two co-morbidities, is even more at risk. So, we’ll be vaccinated when it’s ready and we’ll go out into the world again after our nine month period of lockdown. Or will we? I recalled the 2019 anti-vaccine protests in Oregon, protests based on religious principles: measles, chickenpox, polio, shingles vaccines make use of fetal tissue cell lines (see the Wikipedia article, “Use of Fetal Tissue in Vaccine Development” for details).
What should my wife and I, as strongly pro-life Catholics, choose to do in this apparent dilemma? Deacon Tom, my spiritual director, told me that the Church had issued a directive on this question some 15 years ago. In 2003, Mrs. Debra Vinnedge, Executive Director—Children of God for Life, wrote to Pope Benedict XVI. She asked Pope Benedict for guidelines in the use of vaccines prepared from cell lines of aborted human fetuses. Two years later, The Pontifical Academy for Life produced a paper giving such guidelines; the main points of their study are summarized below.
MORAL CONSIDERATIONS
In “Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Human Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses,” the following general ethical principles are set forth regarding degrees of “cooperation in evil;”
- Formal Cooperation—one cooperates with and shares the evil intention of the sinner;
- Material Cooperation—one cooperates with but does not share the evil intention of the sinner;
- Immediate (direct) Material Cooperation—one shares in the execution of the sinful act;
- Mediate (indirect) Material Cooperation—one provides the means for the execution, but does not participate in the act;
- Passive (negative) Material Cooperation—one does not denounce or impede the performance of the sinful act, given that one has a moral duty to do so.
Of course one should not use vaccines that are derived from or make use of cell lines from fetal tissue, if there are alternative vaccines available, or if no health risk ensue from not using a vaccine. What if alternative vaccines are not available and there is a considerable health risk? The document gives the following guideline:
…if the latter [the general population] are exposed to considerable dangers to their health, vaccines with moral problems pertaining to them may also be used on a temporary basis. The moral reason is that the duty to avoid passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is grave inconvenience. Moreover, we find, in such a case, a proportional reason. op.cit.
Obviously, the “proportional reason” is to avoid being a source of infection. Let’s explore whether potential covid-19 vaccines might be available that do not involve use of cell lines from aborted foetuses. (And if they aren’t, what then?)
FETAL CELL LINE USE IN POTENTIAL COVID-19 VACCINES
Fortunately an extensive up-to-date catalog (as of November 11th, 2020) of the use of fetal cell lines by vaccine developers is available from the Charlotte Lozier Institute. This Institute is dedicated to the promotion of “deeper understanding of the value of human life, motherhood and fatherhood.” The list of scholars, many of them Catholic, associated with the Institute is impressive.
There are three ways in which fetal tissue may be used for a vaccine: development and research, production, and confirmatory testing. For each of 32 organizations developing a covid-19 vaccine, the Charlotte Lozier catalog specifies how each of these three programs is carried out, including use of specific cell lines derived from abortions.
I’ll focus on the information given about three developers who have recently announced positive test results: Pfizer, Moderna and Astra-Zeneca (with Oxford University).
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRODUCTION TESTING
Astra-Zeneca HEK293 Cells HEK293 Cells ?
Moderna Computer Design No cells used Protein/HEK293
Pfizer Computer Design No cells used Protein/HEK293
The HEK293 cell line is derived from the kidney of a female baby aborted in the Netherlands in 1973. Under the “Testing” column in the Charlotte Crozier catalog there is either no information or the listing given in the table above. So one can conclude that there is a uniform testing procedure for vaccine efficacy which involves use of the HEK293 line.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Of the three vaccines that are effective as of this date, that from Astra-Zeneca is clearly disqualified on moral grounds, since a cell line from an aborted foetus is used in the two most important phases: vaccine development and production. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use this cell line only secondarily in testing the vaccine efficacy. Is that acceptable? If I accept the quote from the Pontifical Academy of Life document, “the duty to avoid passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is grave inconvenience,” then I have an excuse to do so. Will I and my wife be vaccinated? Answer forthcoming in several months.
There are indeed prudential considerations in addition to moral ones in this decision. Reports of aftereffects from covid-19 infection—nerve damage, susceptibility to type 1 Diabetes, ….—are rife on the internet. Will there be corresponding side effects from a covid-19 vaccine? Tune in two years from now when long term side effects from the vaccine may be evident, and I’ll let you know, God willing.
The question I have is why would anyone consider getting a vaccine for Covid at this late stage of the game, when it has nearly run its course, caused no more deaths than any serious flu, is risky, and most important potentially used by the government for more social control.
We need mass disobedience to all government edicts that use unscientific evidence of disease to impose economic and society destroying measures for political ends. Covid was essentially a hoax and all the measures taken to confront it were unnecessary or generally ineffective. The damage caused to our population was extensive and often permanent. And to make matter worse the Catholic Church was in full cooperation with all of the government illegitimate actions.
I’m in my early 50’s and doing quite well from a health perspective. I’d like to live into my 60’s at least (my mother died at age 57). I’m not taking it; I don’t trust them. The people backing this thing are huge in the population control movement and stand to make billions of dollars off this fraud.
It isn’t a fraud and it hasn’t run its course.
Covid-19 is a real disease that has actually killed people, but beyond that it’s impossible to say what is going on, since the data is unreliable. From reporting standards from the CDC and most state departments of health we know that the criteria for being labeled as a COVID death are very, very generous. At the same time the all-cause mortality rate is normal (at this point of the year; it was higher before but normal now, lending strength to the hypothesis that most people who died were elderly or very sick and more precisely died a little early). There is also the mystery of the very, very low flu rates (with positive test rates being from 0-.2% depending on region; lower than we’d expect just from false positives). And it’s not like the powers that be are exactly hiding the fact that all studies must conclude that COVID-19 is a terrible threat, while no study can conclude that the lockdowns have caused significant damage. The data is definitely screwy.
Here are two things that we can say though:
-Even if you accept the official data, the disease is not very dangerous at all, except for the very old and very sick.
-The official data is probably skewed in such a way to make the disease look more deadly than it is (ex. true cases are probably much higher, many attributed deaths probably weren’t actually caused by COVID-19, etc.)
That doesn’t mean that people have not died from it. They have. But it does call into question whether the drastic measures taken to “mitigate” the spread were worth the cost (especially since the disease has continued to spread regardless).
RH, I think you’ve evaluated the Wuhan flu situation very well. Old people and those with comorbidities are high risk, but others? And the statistics are muddled beyond belief. Thanks. My wife and I are isolating because we are in the high risk cohort. I don’t expect others to do so.
Silly me, started in the middle with “Obviously, the “proportional reason” is to avoid being a source of infection,” and thought this was about the democrats and how the bishops tried to convince us we could in good conscience vote for Pres Harris and her running mate. Not to worry, I am certain the My-Body-My-Choice-My-Self folks will be out marching en masse to stop them [tyrants, democrats, and other totalitarians] from forcing anyone to do anything with their bodies.
Noticed this on Amazon Books- re new book LITTLE LADY FULL COPY-perhaps good for starting a dialogue with Big Vaxx and other evils:
“Five-year old Felicity Agatha Bright bounces around, hugs her parents, reads on a second grade level, and provides child-like marriage counseling – “Don’t you fussing!” – when her Mom, Lucy, and her Daddy, Cliff, seem to need it. She is also a Down Syndrome child. There is a dramatic change in Felicity after she is given her annual booster vaccines. There is no medical explanation for the changes. The most dramatic change is her new-found ability to play chess on a world grandmaster level. Some think-out-of-the-box scientists and doctors develop an experimental procedure to remove a variety of toxic materials from Felicity in an effort to negate the effects of the toxic materials; but they do not attempt this until after she has become an international sensation, the Little Lady of Chess.”
Thank you Bob K.
Guy, Texas
See commonsensical remarks by Steve Sailer and Neo-Neocon on this point. The co-morbidities are all corollaries of (1) age and (2) excess weight. We have reason to believe they’re not independent vectors.
Art-
Problem being that in those studies where they compared co-morbidities as if they exist in a person, serious medical issues were still a good indicator while “excess weight” was even less useful than age. Same pattern that’s been seen in other “excess weight” studies, where it’s more of a symptom.
Bob- thank you for sharing that link, I was not looking forward to going through my history to find it again!
Thanks so much for writing this article! I’m embarrassed to admit I hadn’t even thought about this.
Family friend 90+ probably 40 pounds over weight (not sure about other health issues) pulled right through COVID with no hospitalization required.
SARS-CoV-2 is a real virus and kills.
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Pretty much everything else is a fraud that will kill more people, many, many quite horrifically.
Tell me again how the “Covid 19 Industry” is not fraud.
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https://www.zerohedge.com/political/la-county-supervisor-eats-restaurant-hours-after-voting-ban-outdoor-dining
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And
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https://www.aier.org/article/covid-misclassification-what-do-the-data-suggest/
Rudolph – It’s not surprising that flu rates are low this year. Everyone’s social distancing, wearing masks, and using hand sanitizer. You sneeze, you get put behind glass for two weeks. I never bought the “double pandemic” forecast.
Pinky, That’s the “official” explanation, but it doesn’t check out for tworeasons:
-First, if the anti-COVID measures are so dramatically effective at stopping the flu, why are they so poor at stopping COVID? Is there something about how the air moves when there are flu germs in it versus COVID that makes masks protect against one but not the other? You can’t say “the COVID restrictions aren’t stopping COVID completely because people aren’t following them” since that then raises the question of why they ARE so effective at stopping the flu, even without people following them. The only way that this works is if COVID is more infectious on an order of magnitude several times more than the flu: remember it’s not just that the flu is a little low, it’s practically vanished. So we would have to have measures that are 99% effective at stopping the flu being maybe 10% effective at stopping COVID (or else it couldn’t spread like it is). Is that plausible?
-Second, the positivity rates for the flu are below what would be expected for false positives alone. That is, even if somehow completely eradicated the flu without realizing it so that no one had the flu, we should still be getting more “cases” just from false positives. The numbers are not just low by an interesting amount, they are impossibly low.
Where things will get really interesting is January. There is always a large spike of flu cases and deaths every December (though the exact amount varies from year to year). Even if we are defeating the flu beyond anything past generations dreamed of, we should still see a spike well above current levels (just small in comparison to previous years). If the numbers remain impossibly flat then those reporting are not only lying but they don’t care if we know it.
You should also hope that flu deaths really are being underreported. Otherwise you’ve given the government full justification to have all lockdown measures permanently just to save lives from the flu.
(After all we’ve learned that no agency cares about negative effects of the lockdowns and indeed few admit that there even could be negative effects, so if thousands of lives can be saved by them they must continue.)
Tell me again how the “Covid 19 Industry” is not fraud.
I’ll tell you again. No there is no conspiracy which has snookered public health authorities and doctors all over the globe.
“Fraud” =/= “conspiracy,” although we do actually know that WHO conspired with China to suppress information about the outbreak, to the point of failing to do their work.
Most of the bone-headed stuff that flies in the face of evidence can be explained by “prospiracies.” Folks who hold the same beliefs and values will tend to do the same things.
Re: Covid and Influenze pandemics
Back a few months ago when the flue vaccine showed up in drug stores, I had a doctor mention casually that he didn’t think there would be much flu this year because Covid-19 would displace it because that was the virus in high circulation.
Maybe that’s because the viruses “compete” (q.v.) for hosts and right now Covid has the market cornered (again, q.v.), which is what I think he meant. Or maybe because we’re so focused on Covid that if you show up with severe flu-like symptoms, the health professionals are going to test you for Covid and when you test negative in three or four days, tell you your not sick and to not worry about it, which is perhaps what he really meant. Note that the latter is what actually happened to a co-worker of a friend. The poor woman has been sick for a month, tested for Covid three times, negative all three times, and only, finally, now are they dealing with the bronchitis that’s become borderline pneumonia.
I am NOT denying that COVID is real or deadly or anything like that.
But I do wonder sometimes how many deaths & hospitalizations are a psycho-somatic result of media hysteria. (and yes, I do find it ironic how many I’ve noticed who will declare mass hysteria as an explanation for Jesus and His miracles, but will deny that anything like that could be at play now during the mass media age)
Another bit of fuel to add to the idea that the virus was inflicted on society for a purpose. The goal in this case is to make the abortion industry a lot of money. They clearly have been doing it for a long time. Thus, the killing of babies goes on with another profit-based motivation. Of course the politicians get their fair share to go along.
Nate,
A relative of mine works in hospice care, i.e. people preparing to die. Firsthand they have witnessed hospice patients who have become COVID positive in the hosptal and have recovered. One gentleman was angry that the COVID didn’t accomplish what the cancer so far has been unable to accomplish.
@Ken, my mom worked at the main hospital in town for years and only recently retired to be a chaplain there. She has mentioned IIRC at least 2 of the workers there taken by COVID.
The words of Gandalf spring to mind: Many die who deserve life, and there are many alive who deserve death.
I will be curious how COVID is looked back on in 5 years.
I’d be interested to know why aborted babies’ body parts are used for research when there are other alternatives and what organs are used? the kidney was mentioned for the vaccine. After reading various articles awhile ago, I was under the impression that stem cells from adults had more promising results than aborted baby stem cells..
Also why not use the umbilical cord from live babies’ births?. I remember asking to see my second son’s umbilical cord when he was born just because I was interested.
Speaking of side effects, here’s something weird: the husband of a friend of mine, had a liver transplant this spring, The tissue came from an unnamed19 year male killed in an auto accident. Since the surgery the husband’s appetite has changed. He has cravings for fast foods where before he got sick he wouldn’t touch the stuff. He ate relatively healthy, fruits, vegetables, few starches and ethnic fare like Thai and Chinese. He now passes on the latter; would rather they pick him up a meal from Burger Biggy. The wife is a nurse and has found through research that there is a medical term for this phenomena and it’s not that unusual.
Cam, if you look at the report of the Charlotte Lozier Institute you’ll see that many of the agencies did use other than fetal cells–cell lines derived from umbilical and placental tissue, adult cell stems, etc. It seems from the little reading i’ve done that the HEK293 cell line is unusually stable and reactive to various protein stimuli, so it’s a matter of choosing a morally poor but operationally good material.