Web posted Thursday, January 9, 2003 http://juneauempire.com/stories/010903/let_letter3.shtml

Morally unacceptable
Letter to the Editor

It is a little known fact that the rubella vaccine, part of the MMR used here in the U.S., was originally derived from tissue taken from the lung cells of an American fetus deliberately aborted in the 1960s. This vaccine is called RA 27/3 because the rubella virus was isolated from the kidney of the 27th aborted fetus sent to the Wistar Institute in the 1964 rubella outbreak. Other mandatory vaccines that are derived from aborted fetal tissue include hepatitis A, and the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine.

One of the primary manufacturer's of these vaccines is Merck Pharmaceutical.

Merck, who makes the only alternative mumps and measles vaccines in a monovalent form, is presently not making these vaccines available to the public and will not yet give a date for their release. They have been backordered for one year. The MMR combo vaccine is the only option available at this time.

Our public tax dollars are used to invest in new research for preventing and curing disease. Congress in FY 2002 increased funding for the National Immunization Program by $76 million. The program now costs taxpayers $631 million per year. We, who are opposed to the practice of abortion and feel these vaccines are unethical, deserve to have alternative vaccines made available to help us protect our children from preventable disease. If you would like to have ethical alternatives for vaccines made available, contact Merck and voice your opinion on this issue.

Write to:
Raymond V. Gilmartin, CEO
Merck & Co. 770 Sumneytown Pike P.O. Box 4
WestPoint, PA. 19486
1-800-422-9675
For more information on vaccines from abortion, contact www.cogforlife.org.

E. Small, R.N.
Juneau