Supporters of the research in Congress and NIH propose to destroy human embryos in order to research new products that might be able to treat life-threatening diseases. And today we have vaccines on the market produced from destroyed human life. Both have immoral acts in their origin. Both provide means of profiting from the destruction of human life. Both hope to achieve some “noble” benefit for mankind. And if the supporters have their way, we will soon be facing further moral dilemmas, no different from what we have today with the vaccines. For just as unnecessary as embryonic stem cell research is — in that we have equal, if not greater, viability in using adult stem cells — there are also alternative methods for producing the vaccines in question. Mumps, measles, polio and rabies already are available in “tainted” and “untainted” versions. It is ludicrous to believe the same cannot be done for rubella, chicken pox and hepatitis-A.
Doerflinger agreed: “For some vaccines, I think there might be other ways, right now. In the case of others, they would have to be developed. One can find out who the manufacturer is. Contact their public relations office and complain. Raise the alarm. These companies respond to pressure. They operate on the acceptance of the public and if enough people are critical of this approach, they will ask their researchers if there are other ways that don’t raise controversy.”
The pro-life organization Children of God for Life decided to do just that. Last August they began a campaign, petitioning the pharmaceutical companies that produce these vaccines to provide the public with safe, effective alternatives that are not derived from aborted fetal tissue. Letters were simultaneously written to medical professionals, parents, religious organizations and leading pro-life organizations, requesting their endorsement. Advertisements were placed in Catholic and medical publications. State Right to Life and Respect Life groups provided radio and newsletter support. Parishes put inserts into their bulletins, encouraging the faithful to sign the petition, which may be ordered as a hard copy or signed on the Internet at Children of God’s website: www.cogforlife.org.
Their free brochures are available to those who are interested in distributing simple, consolidated and useful information on embryonic stem cell research as well as the vaccines derived from abortion. The vaccine flyers include phone numbers for physicians to order those immunizations which use sources other than abortion (mumps, polio, measles and rabies).
As a result of these and many other organized pro-life efforts, in less than two months, Children of God for Life has gained nearly 400,000 signatures. And more importantly, they have gained the attention of both the existing manufacturers of the illicit vaccines and new pharmaceuticals who are interested in providing America with the products they are demanding. Their statement is clear and simple: “The pharmaceutical companies of this country have a moral obligation to provide the American public — those who support their multi-billion dollar operations — with safe, effective vaccines that do not compromise our religious beliefs or the safety of our children. Rest assured, we will not support any research or fund any future products or pharmaceuticals that seek to bring new products to the market, stained by the deliberate destruction of innocent human life. We will not make this same mistake twice!”
For more information, write to: Children of God for Life, 2130 Catalina Drive, Clearwater, Fla. 33764, or visit their website at www.cogforlife.org.
(Debi Vinnedge is the Executive Director of Children of God for Life. This article courtesy of HLI Reports, published by Human Life International.)
by Debi Vinnedge
When the article, “Vaccine From Aborted Fetus Cell Lines Judged Morally Acceptable” hit several Catholic publications several months ago, the reaction of readers was one of shock, anger and utter disbelief that this country has been quietly producing vaccines for the past 20 to 30 years from aborted fetuses. More shock: that we have unknowingly vaccinated our children using this “tainted source,” a more polite way of saying we have used pharmaceutical products from murdered babies. And utterly outrageous is this: There is currently no other source available for three widely used vaccines, namely, hepatitis-A, chicken pox and rubella/MMR.
Letters denouncing both the article and the newspapers poured in from staunch pro-life Catholics across the country who found the act of profiting from abortion unethical, immoral and downright repulsive. One woman wrote, “Please tell me this is a mistake… This is Nazi Germany revisited.” And while editors, ethicists and philosophers scrambled to respond, the dark history of the vaccines began to unfold.
During the 1964 rubella epidemic, scientists were under pressure to develop a treatment for the rapidly spreading virus. The concern was not so much for the children who contracted it — rubella, or “german measles,” is basically a harmless childhood disease. The mild rash and fever last no more than a few days and complications of any sort are rare. It only seriously affects pre-born infants during the first trimester of pregnancy if the mother is exposed and actually passes it on to her child. If this should occur, an estimated 20-25% will contract some form of Congenital Rubella Syndrome. Children infected are at risk for growth retardation, malformations of the heart, eyes or brain, deafness, and liver, spleen and bone marrow problems.
Because of that risk, doctors began to advise their pregnant patients to consider their “options.” Those who chose to abort their babies, we are quite sure, were never told whether or not their child had actually contracted the rubella virus at all. We do know that in the control experiment group, there were 27 abortions performed before the live virus was detected. The first 26 were apparently perfectly healthy babies. This 27th victim became known in the science world as human diploid cell line WI-38. In the real world, this tiny martyr was a female infant at just under three months gestation. Her lung tissue would be used to cultivate the weakened virus strains for this and other future immunizations. In the 1970s, a second cell line derived from a 14-week-old aborted male, dubbed MRC-5, would provide fetal lung tissue for even further medical treatments.
Dangerous Parallels
As the controversy over the vaccines continued to grow, a number of prominent Catholic ethicists and theologians were consulted. Richard Doerflinger, associate director of Policy Development for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, had this to say: “Both the British Bishops Conference and the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston have done serious analysis of this problem. Basically, both studies conclude that it is not immoral for a parent to use these vaccines. Certainly, the abortions were immoral and the vaccine companies’ cooperation with the abortionists was immoral, but the idea that a person is complicit in that act many years later, solely because he or she was presented with the vaccine as the only available way to protect his or her health, is a difficult argument to make.”
Dr. Janet Smith, professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas stated, “Is it wise in our present culture — what Pope John Paul II has called a ‘culture of death’ — to use vaccines produced with the aid of fetal tissue from aborted babies? Those who argue that it is not, place a great deal of emphasis on the scandal and complicity that may arise. They believe that, in a culture where scientists are salivating over the availability of fetal tissue to use in research, the use of such vaccines will be interpreted as giving approval to such research and perhaps will even give rise to more abortions and experimentation on embryos.” Her words have proven to be chillingly prophetic.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and some members of Congress were quick to use this exact strategy to argue for federal funding of research on stem cells derived from deliberately destroyed human embryos. At the Senate subcommittee hearings held on April 26, 2000, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made the comparison of the polio vaccine and its derivation from abortion, to using embryonic stem cells and their potential medical possibilities for treating major diseases in the future. A similar parallel was again drawn by State Senator David Landis regarding the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center research on aborted fetuses. During their legislative session, Landis produced copies of the article that had stated that the use of the present vaccines was morally acceptable, and attempted to use that statement to strengthen his position favoring the research.