For over thirty years pharmaceutical companies in this country have
been producing vaccines derived from tissues of aborted fetuses, a fact that was brought to light when several prominent
Catholic newspapers published articles on the morality of using the vaccines.
The trouble began when a new law in St. Louis County, Mo. required food
handlers to obtain the Hepatitis-A vaccine for employment. When the source of
the vaccine was revealed, many principled individuals objected and with good
reason. As this information has become public, more and more
physicians and parents are troubled by the ethical issues involved.
During the Rubella epidemic of 1964, some
doctors advised exposed pregnant women to abort their children. The resulting
virus strain developed was known in the science world as RA/27/3, where
R=Rubella, A=Abortus, 27=27th fetus tested, 3=third tissue explant. There were
actually 26 abortions prior to finding the right “species” with the active
virus. The vaccine was then cultivated on the lung tissue of yet another aborted
infant, WI-38.
WI-38 (Wistar Institute 38) was taken from
the lung tissue of an aborted female infant at 3 months gestation in the 1960s.
A second human cell line, MRC-5 was derived from a male at 14 weeks gestation in
the 1970s. They were used to cultivate the weakened virus strains of several
diseases to produce immunizations. These
two human cell lines cultivated in the lab continue to provide an ongoing source
for many widely used vaccines.
NO
OTHER SOURCE
Three of the vaccines were produced solely
from abortion and to date, there is no other source available to treat
their diseases. The vaccines are:
·
CHICKEN POX
·
HEPATITIS – A
·
RUBELLA
Following is the information on each
vaccine, its clinical name and the pharmaceutical company producing them.
CHICKENPOX: VARIVAX/VARICELLA
Uses both MRC-5 and WI-38 human cell lines and is produced by Merck & Co.
HEPATITIS-A: “HAVRIX”, “VAQTA”
Uses MRC-5 human cell lines and is produced by SmithKline Beecham and Merck
& Co.
HEPATITIS A-B:
“TWINRIX”
New combo vaccine uses MRC-5 human cell lines and is produced by SmithKline
Beecham (NOTE: Hepatitis-B alone is NOT “tainted.”)
RUBELLA: MERUVAX,
MMR
Uses WI-38 human cell lines and is produced by Merck & Co.
NOTE:
MERUVAX IMMUNIZES FOR RUBELLA ONLY. MMR IMMUNIZES FOR MEASLES-MUMPS-RUBELLA.
OTHER VACCINES, WHICH COMBINES WITH RUBELLA: RUBELLA-MUMPS, (BIAVAX) OR
RUBELLA-MEASLES (MR-VAX) USE THE WI-38 ABORTED FETAL CELL LINE.
New
Vaccines Under Development
HIV:
(No
clinical name assigned yet)
Under development by Merck & Co. using aborted fetal
cell line PER C6.
Ebola:
(No clinical name assigned yet)
Research by the National Institutes of Health and Crucell
NV using aborted fetal cell line PER C6
OTHER
“TAINTED” VACCINES
There are some vaccines that have been manufactured from these same aborted
fetal cell lines, (MRC-5 and WI-38), however there are also alternative sources
used in their production that do not come from abortion.
Following is the information on each vaccine, its clinical name, the
alternative “untainted” source and the pharmaceuticals producing them.
MUMPS
MUMPSVAX (UNTAINTED) Merck & Co.: Uses the cell cultures of
a chicken embryo. 1-800 422-9675
POLIO
POLIOVAX (TAINTED) Aventis-Pasteur: Uses MRC-5 human cell
line.
IPOL (UNTAINTED) Aventis-Pasteur/Connaught: Uses monkey
kidney cells. 1-800-822-2463
ORIMUNE (Oral Dosage - Untainted)
RABI
IMOVAX (TAINTED) Aventis-Pasteur/Connaught: Uses MRC-5
human cell line.
RabAvert (UNTAINTED) Chiron Inc.: Uses chick embryo. 1-800 244-7668 (Pacific Time)
Your doctor can order the
untainted versions by calling the 800 numbers listed above.
They are all available in single dosage.
New
Vaccines Under Development - TAINTED AND UNTAINTED VERSIONS
Smallpox
Acambis
1000 (TAINTED
MRC-5)
54 million doses to be manufactured
Acambis 2000 (UNTAINTED Vero Cell line)
(155 million doses to be manufactured)
Flu
MedImmune
Inc.Version (TAINTED
PER C6)
Note: Current flu vaccines made
by Aventis Pasteur and Wyeth Ayerest do not use aborted fetal tissue.
ALSO DIPHTHERIA, YELLOW FEVER,
HAEMOPHILUS B, HEPATITIS B, TETANUS, PNEUMONAL CONJUGATE AND ANTHRAXARE OTHER VACCINES THAT ARE NOT DERIVED FROM ABORTED FETAL TISSUE.
Moral Problems
Many ethicists have tried to justify the use of vaccines
derived from aborted fetal tissue when there are no alternatives available. They
make a legitimate argument that we have a moral obligation to protect our
children and society from life threatening diseases. But many opposed to abortion find the use of these
vaccines morally
objectionable. The aborted child
has already had his/ her human dignity severely violated. The callous practice
of using these babies’ tissue amounts to further violation of the dignity of
the unborn person. Some think
using such vaccines constitutes complicity in the evil of abortion; others argue
that it is morally permissible in the absence of alternatives.
Yet all agree alternatives must be sought and used whenever possible.
Meanwhile
researchers are still exploiting aborted fetuses and are creating embryos
strictly for the purposes of research.
And they use the present vaccines from aborted fetuses to justify their
actions. At
the Senate subcommittee hearings on Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Senator Harry
Reid compared the use of future products taken from human embryos to the
benefits of the Polio vaccine. The
University of Nebraska used the same argument to defend their experiments on
aborted fetal tissue. Even President Bush justified his decision on funding
embryonic stem cell research by using the chickenpox vaccine as a precedent,
since the embryos, like the aborted babies, had already been destroyed.
Current Trends
Because
the pharmaceutical industry has perceived a public acceptance of the current
vaccines, they are continuing to utilize both the existing aborted fetal cell
lines – and fresh sources – in order to create new vaccines.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, the federal government
sought out contracts to develop a new smallpox vaccine.
Despite the fact that the FDA and CDC had acknowledged several cell
substrates would be acceptable for growing the virus, when the award was granted
to Acabmis Inc., they opted to use the MRC-5 aborted fetal cell line.
After thousands of angry protests flooded our government offices, 30 days
later a second contract was awarded to Acambis/Baxter, but this time, aborted
fetal tissue would not be utilized.
More
disturbing is the pharmaceutical industry’s latest trend to begin using a new
fetal cell line named PER C6, created by the Dutch pharmaceutical, Crucell, NV.
This cell line was taken from the retinal tissue of an 18-week gestation
baby, aborted because, according to Dr. Van Der Eb at recent FDA hearings,
“the father was unknown and the woman wanted to get rid of the fetus”.
Dr. Van Der Eb went on to say, “PER C6 was made just for the
pharmaceutical manufacturing of adenovirus vectors.”
He added, “I realize that this sounds a bit commercial, but PER C6 were
made for that particular purpose.”
Summary
Unless all our actions show respect for human life, we will be less able to oppose the actions of those who discount the inviolable dignity of embryonic and fetal life. The most important fact is that vaccines can and must be made from sources other than tissues from aborted fetuses. We proved it with our smallpox campaign in November 2001 by demanding an untainted alternative – and we got it! Had we remained silent, millions of Americans would be forced to use a life and death vaccine, grown on the MRC-5 aborted fetal cell lines. Perhaps then, the real complicity lies not in whether we choose to use these vaccines, but rather that we do nothing about them.
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2002
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