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Children Of God For Life tackles vaccine controversy

Many pro-lifers are aware of the troubling fact that many vaccines given their children or grandchildren are derived from aborted fetal cell lines.

This information poses a dilemma:  what can a conscientious pro-lifer do, especially when faced with hard realities such as that public and many Catholic schools require these vaccinations for admittance?

Debra Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, told pro-lifers at the 2004 Delaware Pro-Life Coalition Convention that they need not throw up their hands in despair.  Armed with the truth about vaccines, they can and should work to end the use of vaccines from aborted babies.

Although, some Catholic ethicists have said it is permissible to use these vaccines, she said, “The bottom line is, one must never justify evil because good can come of it.”

The harm perpetrated by the use of aborted fetal cell lines is far-reaching, Vinnedge asserted:  “It’s being used time after time to justify immoral research.”

For example, at the Senate sub-committee hearing on embryonic stem cell research, Senator Harry Reid compared the possible benefits of such research to the polio vaccine, which used aborted fetal tissue, stating the public had no problem with that.

The Children of God director debunked several myths regarding the use of fetal cells in vaccines:

Myth #1:  Only a few abortions were involved, and they were done a long time ago.

Research to create vaccines from aborted fetal cell lines began in 1961 at the Wistar Institute, the research facility of the University of Pennsylvania, with the importation of at least 20 aborted babies from Sweden, where abortion was legal.

About half of these aborted babies, from 7 to 21 weeks’ gestation,  emerged intact and living, at which point the researchers cut open their abdomens and removed their liver and kidneys.

In 1964 some Pennsylvania doctors advised pregnant women who had contracted rubella to abort their child because it might be born with birth defects.

Wistar collected and dissected their fetuses.  The first 26 apparently were healthy.  The researchers finally found the live virus in the 27th aborted baby.

In all, at least 47 abortions were involved in the research and final production of the present-day rubella vaccine.

In the 1970s another cell line, MRC-5, derived from an aborted male baby of 14 weeks’ gestation, was introduced in Great Britain.

Myth #2:  These cell lines are immortal, so no further fetal tissue will be needed to create new vaccines.

Leonard Hayflick, a researcher at the Wistar Institute who helped develop the rubella vaccine, declared that there was no way a cell line could be kept alive indefinitely unless it was cancerous.

“Cells die just as we die,” explained Vinnedge.  “Our cells, as we grow older, age with us.

“The cell life is based on the age of the donor.  This is why you see so many people go after the embryos, because they are going to live for so long.  But at some point they will die.”

So the quest for more and more viable fetal tissue to create vaccines goes on.

The cell line PER C6, which came from the retinal tissue of an aborted baby of 18 weeks’ gestation, was introduced at Food and Drug Administration hearings in 2002.

The Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell in 2003 tried to acquire a supply of aborted babies from New Zealand for new vaccine development.

“It created a big public scandal, and New Zealand turned them down,” said Vinnedge.

Myth #3:  Using these vaccines does not encourage more abortions.

Numerous polls indicate that women who are considering abortion would be more likely to have one if they knew the fetus would be used for medical research.

Myth #4:  There is no other way to produce these vaccines.

During the rubella epidemic of 1964, the Japanese swabbed the throat of a child who had the disease and grew it on rabbit cell lines.

“You don’t have to use aborted fetal parts,” said Vinnedge.

Children of God for Life’s website, www.cogforlife.org, lists the types of vaccines for which there are ethical alternatives in the United States.

An informed public can pressure the government and the pharmaceutical industry to use ethical vaccines, Vinnedge maintains.

In October 2001, a month after the September 11 attack, the government gave a British company a contract for a smallpox vaccine derived from an aborted fetal cell line.

Children of God for Life immediately sent out a press release, encouraging its supporters to complain to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Thousands of letter poured in, written by people who said they would refuse to take the vaccine.

“Thirty days later, they gave a second contract for 150 million smallpox doses using a monkey cell line,” said Vinnedge.

Vinnedge worked with Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey to introduce the Fair Labeling and Informed Consent Act 2004, which would require the pharmaceutical industry to provide full disclosure and informed consent on all products that use fetal or embryonic cell lines.

“If the FDA can require carbohydrate information on cookies, I think we have a right to know when butchered babies are being used in our medical products!” she exclaimed.

The bill would also protect doctors who don’t want to use these products.

“We have the support of Nurses for Life and the Catholic Medical Association, and numerous professionals who are angry they are being forced to use these products,” said Vinnedge.

The bill was put on hold due to the election year, but will be pushed aggressively this year, she said.

Vinnedge was scheduled to meet with Congressman Smith and Senators Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback on the bill after the January 24 March for Life in Washington.