Should Catholics use childhood vaccines that are developed from aborted children?

[beckyann2597]

I have a fellow Catholic friend at my Moms Group at church. I respect her opinion on most things, but recently had a disagreement with her about vaccinating our children. I do and she does not. I tried to speak with her about the benifits out wieghing the risks, but she tells me that many childhood vaccinations were developed using stem cells from aborted or frozen embryos and so it is unethical to immunize your children. I have not found anything in my online study to convince me. My mother is a nurse and from her info I believe it is better to be safe than sorry. Is it ethical to immunize our children?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The Pontifical Academy for Life, under the direction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently released a study on the issue that both affirms the rights of individuals to abstain from such immunizations but cautions that parents should carefully consider the risks of doing so both for their child and for general society. Thus, it is allowable to receive such immunizations based on proportionate reason and the remoteness of the cooperation with evil (which, in this case, may indeed by quite remote). However, if reliable alternatives exist, those should be preferred. To date, though, such alternatives may not yet exist. Please see the links below for more information.

Recommended reading:

Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Fetuses by the Pontifical Academy for Life

Vatican Says Refusing Vaccines Must Be Weighed Against Health Threats by Carol Glatz (Catholic News Service)