Page 69 - Vaccines

Moral responsibilities

interesting to see what might happen if an employee who
were dismissed for refusing vaccination were to sue for
damages in the courts of that State, invoking conscien-
tious objection because of a specific vaccine having been
morally compromised through the use of biological
material from aborted foetuses in the testing phases of
its production.

k. The original case of the MMR vaccine
Returning to the case presented to me by my bishop in
1994, on the joint MMR vaccine, I had judged then that
where (1) there is no vaccine available which has not been
derived from the cells of aborted foetuses and (2) where
there is a very grave danger of a (resurgence of a)
dangerous or even lethal disease, such as rubella, in my
opinion it is morally legitimate for such vaccines to be
used. The lives of children not vaccinated would be in
danger in the case of further outbreak (a proportionate
reason), the lives of other children would then be in
danger through the high degree of contagion and, in the
current situation in many countries, this could lead to
doctors and parents choosing to perpetrate more actual
abortions. Since the vaccine exists (for rubella), so that it
cannot be pretended that there is nothing which can help
those in need, its functioning is salutifera, not mortifera;
in itself, it does not provoke abortion at all; the connec-
tion with the deliberately procured abortion, for those
who receive the vaccines and for parents who request or
who accept it for their children, is historically remote.

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