Doc: No fetal tissue used in J&J vaccine
Catholics had called for people to avoid it
Roman Catholic leaders in some parts of the country are advising parishioners that Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is “morally compromised” because it is produced using a cell line derived from an aborted fetus, but the Archdiocese of Boston is saying take the vax offered.
A statement issued by chairmen of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees on doctrine and abortion issues highlighted the moral concerns. It said the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are preferable “if one has the ability to choose a vaccine.”
While not disputing the church officials’ contention that an abortion-derived cell line is used in the production, Johnson & Johnson issued a statement Tuesday stressing that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is made using a harmless cold virus, called an adenovirus.
In December, the Vatican said that “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses” in the research and production process when “ethically irreproachable” vaccines aren’t available to the public.
Pope Francis has frequently spoken about the need to ensure that vaccines are widely available, especially to the poor and marginalized. And, last month, a decree signed by the governor of the Vatican city-state said that Vatican employees who opt out of vaccination without a proven medical reason could be subject to sanctions, including being fired.
Other archdioceses such as the ones in New Orleans and St. Louis have urged Catholics to get a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine if possible.
In Boston, a spokesman for the archdiocese said, “We want everyone to get vaccinated regardless of whichever vaccine is available.”
MC Sullivan, the archdiocese’s ethicist wrote, “Church teaching about the duty to save lives where possible, which the broad distribution of whatever vaccines deemed safe and effective will help do, should reassure the faithful of the moral permissibility of accepting the available vaccine.”
Dr. Helen Boucher, chief of infectious disease at Tufts Medical Center, said, “There were no aborted fetuses used in the research of this vaccine.”
She added, “The Pope has stated repeatedly that it’s a moral imperative to be vaccinated.”
Boucher said the controversy surrounding the vaccine comes from a “misunderstanding of the nature of the cell lines that were used in the research.”