The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committees on Doctrine and Pro-Life recently approved the use of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines. They celebrated the “encouraging news about the development and distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus. Thanks be to God.”
Regarding allegations of aborted human fetuses being used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines’ production, the Committees announced, “the vaccine offered by these two companies is relatively remote from the evil of abortion.”
The Committee added:
Morally speaking, the vaccine offered by these two companies is relatively remote from the evil of abortion, and so need not trouble anyone’s conscience to use either one.
In contrast, some other companies use a cell line from the fetal tissue of an aborted baby in the design, development, production, and lab testing of their COVID vaccines.
If possible, those vaccines should not be used. If there is no alternative available, however, people may in good faith use them against the serious health risk of COVID.
The common good of public health takes precedence over any reservation about being treated with vaccines; they will not be effective if people do not use them.
Despite bioethical questions about the vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna have the stamp of approval from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, relieving some doubts by pro-lifers worried about the moral consequences of receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
