Page 47 - Vaccines

Key principles of Catholic moral theology

persons or an entire population from a disease and if the
whole operation extends over a number of years, this does
not necessarily remove the causal connection. This factor
is especially relevant for assessing the moral responsibili-
ties of those involved in the subsequent or later stages in
the production process or in the commercialisation and
distribution processes. However, it is an important point
of concern for many people preoccupied about the use of
the vaccines for themselves or for their children. This
moral objection applies particularly to those producing,
selling and distributing the vaccine. Despite the anxieties
of the ultimate beneficiaries and their families and despite
the worries of a number of bishops and of others about
this question, it must be remembered that some kind of
causal connection must always be present for the question
of cooperation to arise at all; if there were no link at all
with the immoral action of another, the questions relating
to cooperation in any form would never have surfaced.
Thus, the mere existence of a causal connection is not in
itself sufficient to render merely material cooperation
immoral in a given case.

iii. Doubts of conscience and the moral systems
Although not always expressly connected with discus-
sions over cooperation, in fact dilemmas about coopera-
tion can involve also forms of doubts of conscience. In
the case at issue here, the doubt cannot be “put aside” by
discovering the truth, which is the essential demand of
prudence in the case of a doubt of fact. In our case, the
key facts are known, namely, that a number of vaccines
have actually been developed from cell-lines cultured
from the cells of deliberately aborted human foetuses,
that, while in some cases there are available vaccines for
specific diseases derived from morally unproblematic

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