Page 61 - Vaccines

Moral responsibilities

the procedures being reviewed here and as to the exist-
ence and hence duty to use alternatives where they exist
and of the need to develop such alternatives and to make
them available where this is not so.

f. Catholic scientists

It is the duty of Catholic scientists, technicians and
doctors, involved in disciplines relevant to this question,
to exert pressure upon government, medical associations,
pharmacists, etc., not to participate in the production,
testing or commercialisation of such products. This is
necessary also to prevent the systematic, passive accept-
ance of a false anthropology, of the utilitarian mentality,
of the deceptive and false views that whatever a democ-
racy chooses is right or is to be accepted or that whatever
is legally promulgated or sanctioned through judicial
sentence is thereby rendered morally right or legitimate.
This is necessary to avoid an insidious, damaging passive
material cooperation.

g. The role of the Magisterium

Many of these points have been made in the Declaration
of the Pontifical Academy for Life of 2005, an advisory
body of the Roman Curia, but they appear with great
authority in John Paul II’s Evangelium vitae, where there
is yet a further development of moral doctrine, since the
Pope invokes not just the right of conscientious objection,
but proclaims authoritatively also the duty to exercise
such a right, with all that this may mean in terms of
unpopularity or of promotion opportunities.1 Beyond
articulating such truths, the Magisterium, must raise its
voice, through Bishops’ Conferences in countries where

1 John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, nn. 74, 89.

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