Vatican approves vaccines using cell lines from aborted fetuses

The Vatican decided on Tuesday on the controversy in places like the United States and Spain by associating the new vaccines against the coronavirus with cells derived from abortions decades ago. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been very clear: if the citizens they can’t choose the vaccine that they are going to say “it is morally acceptable to use the Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”

In Spain, the controversy began following statements by Cardinal Archbishop of Valencia, Antonio Cañizares, who said in June that “the devil exists in the midst of a pandemic, trying to conduct research for vaccines and cures. We have the most painful news that one of the vaccines is made from cells of aborted fetuses ”.

Also in the United States and Canada, a debate erupted when a montage saying the AstraZeneca vaccine was made spread on social media. with fetal cells.

Experts in vaccinology they categorically deny that these drugs can transport human fetal tissue removed from abortion. Instead, they must use cell lines created through cultures, copies and growth of cells taken from human tissue long after they are obtained, the Efe agency explained.

In its statement, the Vatican, which condemns abortion, tells Catholics that the use of these vaccines “does not and should in no way imply moral endorsement of the use of cell lines from aborted fetuses.”

“The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation – with evil – is not binding if there is a serious danger, such as the otherwise unstoppable spread of a serious pathogen: in this case, pandemic spread SARS virus. CoV-2 causing Covid-19 “, writes the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Luis F. Ladaria.

“Therefore,” he continues, “it must be considered that, in this case, all vaccines recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used with the certainty that the use of such vaccines does not imply formal cooperation with the abortion from which cells were obtained with which vaccines were produced. “

Of course, the Holy See called on the pharmaceutical industry to distribute vaccines “ethically acceptable that they do not create problems of conscience, neither to the health personnel nor to the own vaccinated ”.

The author is correspondent for La Vanguardia, in the Vatican

ap