Fetal cells, pro-life, and vaccines

I was asked yesterday:

I am wondering if you can write more about vaccines, many of which are cultured on fetal cells.

Many people may not be aware that several vaccines are cultured on human fetal cell lines. Some are from aborted fetuses and some are not (natural miscarriage, freely donated by the mother, died in utero, etc.). You might be questioning why these are being used, and when did this practice begin. Well, you have to look back fifty years or so. You find the roots of some of this in reports such as Preparation of Poliovirus Vaccine in a Human Fetal Diploid Cell Strain, Am. J. Hyc., 1962, Vol 75:240-258. Below are a couple of short extracts from that report:

The use of primary adult monkey-kidney cells (MK) for the production of poliovirus vaccines is complicated by their possessing a number of undesirable properties. The demonstration of no less than 18 serologically distinct latent simian viruses has been reported in this cell system. It has now become increasingly evident that one or more of these viruses may be present in all such cultures of MK grown in vitro. One of these, the B virus, has been found to cause fatalities in man when introduced by percutaneous inoculation. . .

To avoid these and other problems associated with the production of human virus vaccines in MK, we have attempted to demonstrate the efficacy of an attenuated poliovirus vaccine produced in an entirely different in vitro system. This system involves the use of human fetal diploid cell strains as a substrate for virus multiplication. . . . The present report describes . . . the production of a type 1 attenuated poliovirus vaccine in these cells, and the feeding of this vaccine to human subjects.

In other words, when the original research was done, there was a big problem, one that if not solved could have made the defeat of polio more difficult with many more human deaths involved. The problem with using animal cell lines were several. In the case of polio, they found out to their horror that all the MK lines were contaminated with simian viruses. BTW, does anyone remember the main theory for the origins of HIV (the cause of AIDS)? Yes, the high probability is that HIV is a simian virus that mutated and jumped into humans. And, the MK lines were contaminated with multiple simian viruses. Quite a dilemma! People had already died. Besides that problem, they found that many humans reacted against other simian by-products and antigens. This could have put the polio vaccine program for the world in serious problems. People were clearly dying regularly from polio back then. The problem had to be solved. The quickest solution that scientists came up with was the human fetal cells.

The scientists doing the research were doing it long before Roe v Wade at a time when there were NO complaints from Christians about the use of those fetal cell lines. Please note that there was NO attempt to hide the research, which was done in the late 1950’s. It was published quite publicly, and yes, back then there were Christian scientists, just like today. While elective abortion has been condemned by the Church for centuries, there was NO condemnation back then of the use of these cells. Back then, the Christian view was that abortion was morally wrong, just like today. But, while abortion was wrong, they did not see the scientists who developed the vaccine as being morally wrong. Rather, it was viewed on the same level as the scientist who might use parts from a murdered person’s body to do some vital research. Just because parts from a murdered body are used does not mean that the scientist was somehow morally contaminated nor did it mean that his/her research was morally contaminated. But, that was back then.

Today the moral views of many Christians on the issue of the use of fetal cells has changed. It is important that you realize that they have changed, otherwise you will end up morally condemning some innocent scientists from back then who did the research without any thought that they might be violating some moral precept. It is also important that you realize that the moral views of many Christians have changed, otherwise you will end up morally condemning the Church itself for something that was not seen to be a problem. The best example that I can give you is that polygamy was not condemned by God until Our Lord Jesus came to Earth and spoke and taught us better. No Old Testament patriarch, prophet, or king is ever rebuked by God for having more than one wife. We can argue that God always thought that polygamy was wrong. That is true. Our Lord said that, “from the beginning it was not so.” But God never imputed sin to anyone who had more than one wife until AFTER His Son spoke. In a parallel way, many may now be of the opinion that morally it is not appropriate to do research using cell lines from elective abortions, but please do not condemn the scientists from those days nor impute sin to them. Holy Tradition had not yet developed to this point. [Note: Protestants may wish to say to themselves that, “the Holy Spirit had not yet spoken.” However, since the Holy Spirit has chosen to speak through Christians, that is through the Church, that is what Holy Tradition is.]

You may realize by now that the subject that has been brought up by this discussion is the subject of moral theology and even of Holy Tradition and the speaking of the Holy Spirit. Tomorrow we shall look at what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has to say on the area of vaccines produced from human fetal cell lines. And, we shall use that to talk about moral reasoning.

===MORE TO COME===