Vatican City, Jul 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In a recent document, the Vatican has condemned the production and use of vaccines derived from aborted fetal cell lines.
The Pontifical Academy for Life’s eight-page document was published in Medicina e Morale by the Center for Bioethics of Catholic University in Rome. It is titled “Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Fetuses.”
Vatican officials have put the full burden of guilt on the pharmaceutical industry, comparing their moral complicity to that of the abortionists themselves. They are also calling for "rigorous legal control of the pharmaceutical industry producers."
The Vatican also supports parents who refuse to use the vaccines. “As regards the diseases against which there are no alternative vaccines which are available and ethically acceptable, it is right to abstain from using these vaccines if it can be done without causing children, and indirectly the population as a whole, to undergo significant risks to their health,” the statement reads.