Page 43 - Vaccines

Key principles of Catholic moral theology

The question of cooperation in the wrong-doing of
another was further developed in some of the manuals
of moral theology. Although these are often criticised for
being legalistic, minimalistic, not directly theological,
less concerned to foster virtue, the truth is that there can
be no justice without law, no proper moral discernment,
judgment and action without careful attention, in addi-
tion to the intention and motivation of the agent, also to
the relevant factors and circumstances, in relation also to
what is morally good and right conduct in identical or in
similar situations. If emotivism, sentimentalism and the
mere “decisionism” often associated with radical moral
autonomy, are to be avoided, the operation of prudence
requires the responsible casuistry implied in the evalua-
tion just noted. Further reflection on cooperation by some
manualists22 and by some more modern authors23 led to
additional criteria being elaborated for the identification
of a merely material cooperation which could be morally
legitimate, criteria well presented in the Declaration by
the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2005 on the question
of cooperation in the use of vaccines developed from
tissues taken from or derived from cells of aborted

22 Cf. D. P. Prümmer, De cooperatione ad malum in Id. Manuale
theologiae moralis secundum principia S. Thomae Aquinatis, I,
Herder, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1923, pars I, tract. IX, cap III, n.
2, cited in Pontifical Academy for Life, Declaration: Moral
reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted
human foetuses, 5ᵗʰ June, 2005.
23 Cf. for example, K-H. Peschke, Moral Theology in the light of
Vatican II, I, General moral theology (Goodliffe Neale, Alcester,
1986), revised edition, pp. 320–324; L. Melina, 'La cooperazione
con azioni moralmente cattive contro la vita umana' in E.
Sgreccia and R. Lucas Lucas (ed.), Commentario interdisciplinare
all'Evangelium vitae (LEV, Vaticano, 1997), pp. 467–490, cited
with others in Pontifical Academy for Life, Declaration: Moral
reflections on vaccines ...

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