Bishops were right to address concerns over the ethics of vaccine production

National Post, 18 March 2021

Consumers are constantly demanding ethically sourced products, except when those ethical concerns are raised by Catholics.

If we are concerned about “ethically sourced” coffee beans, should we not be concerned about ethically sourced vaccines, as well? Last week, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops put out a statement addressing issues surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines, which — like many other pharmaceuticals — are developed and produced from cell lines derived from tissue taken from abortions. Is it possible to accept such vaccines in good conscience?

For example, if the production of the vaccines required fresh tissue from ongoing abortions, then it would clearly be immoral to accept the vaccine. That’s not really controversial. It would be immoral to accept an organ transplant taken from an unwilling donor, or one killed for that purpose, as is practised by the Chinese regime.

Or imagine if vaccine production required harvesting plants from sacred Indigenous lands against the will of the local hereditary chiefs. It would be wholly expected that objections would be raised. So “ethically sourced” biomaterial matters.

The question of abortion-derived cell lines has been studied for quite some time in related contexts, and in 2008 the Vatican itself issued a judgment: given that the “co-operation” in the abortion itself was extremely remote, it was morally permissible to accept such vaccines. In the relevant vaccine cases, the abortions took place in the 1970s, and the current cell lines originate from those tissues, millions of “generations” removed.

The Catholic view is that it would be better not to use such abortion-derived cell lines in the development or production of pharmaceuticals. Some vaccines use them in development but not production, while others use them in both development and production. The former are preferable to the latter, but both are morally acceptable, especially if there is no choice of vaccine available.

“Catholics are invited to be vaccinated, both in keeping with the dictates of their conscience and in contributing to the common good by promoting the health and safety of others,” the bishops wrote. “All COVID-19 vaccines that are medically approved by the relevant health authorities may be licitly received by Catholics. Since there is currently no choice of vaccine being offered, Catholics in good conscience, may receive the vaccine that is available and offered to them.”

So that resolved that. But the wider reaction was instructive, with not a few voices criticizing the bishops for raising any ethical concerns about the source of cell lines, or even entering the fray at all. It demonstrates that, as in so many other areas of pandemic management, the concerns of religious believers are downplayed.

The concerns of various minority communities about getting vaccinated have been treated with respect, acknowledging that the concerns are valid and need to be taken seriously. But when concerns come from some segments of the Christian or Jewish communities, it’s another story entirely.

Continue reading at the National Post.