When Vaccination Is An Act of Charity

Statement of the U.S. Bishops: The “gravity” of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and “the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” are “sufficiently serious” reasons to accept the Pfizer/ BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine and pro-life committees said Dec. 14, 2020.

“Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community,” they said. “In this way, being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.”

The bishops addressed the moral concerns raised by the fact the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have some connection to cell lines that originated with tissue taken from abortions. However, this connection to morally compromised cell lines is (a) indirect, and (b) extremely remote. Furthermore, (c) the public health situation is too grave to reject the vaccines, said Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

Statement of the National Catholic Bioethics Center: “The NCBC recognizes an ethical hierarchy among COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines that do not use abortion-derived cell lines in any phase of design, manufacture or testing are the best ethical choice if they are reasonably available, safe, and effective. Vaccines that do not use abortion derived cell lines in the manufacturing process but did use them at one point in development, such as for confirmatory testing, are preferable to those that utilize abortion-derived cell lines in more than one phase of development and, in particular, in the manufacturing process. Nonetheless, for grave reasons, people could decide in good conscience to accept vaccines that use abortion-derived cell lines in their development and production to protect their own lives and health and that of others in the absence of any satisfactory alternative.”

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