COVID-19 Vaccines and Abortion: The Vatican Speaks

Regarding the use of COVID-19 vaccines that employed cell lines from aborted fetuses, the Vatican put out a statement in December 2020 entitled, “Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines.”

It states, “our objective is only to consider the moral aspects of the use of the vaccines against Covid-19 that have been developed from cell lines derived from tissues obtained from two fetuses that were not spontaneously aborted,” and they conclude, “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.” and “In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good. In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed.” [Italics theirs.]

For myself, I can also state that I work at a Catholic hospital, Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, and I’m on faculty at a Catholic University, Saint Louis University. Both institutions are not only encouraging but are requiring their staff to be vaccinated. If there were a moral problem with these vaccines, these institutions would certainly be among the first to state their misgivings with regard to them.