After serious consideration, I decided to get
the Pfizer vaccine. The efforts of Pfizer and other
medical companies are certainly admirable in creating a safe and effective vaccine as a tool to defeat the virus spreading around the world and end the
current pandemic. The currently
available vaccines are certainly offering a great measure of hope and are doing
so much to stop the spread of the virus.
Yet I hesitated to get vaccinated because of one
ethical issue. All the vaccines currently available, including Pfizer’s, have
used cells derived from an aborted fetus in the research and development
process. While the vaccines’ connection to abortion is indirect and remote, it
still causes me concern, and it is unethical. It’s concerning that a
vaccine, which is undeniably saving so many lives, benefits in a small way from
the death of a defenseless person through abortion. We are each unique, and specially created
from the moment of conception, and abortion truly ends an innocent life who has
no way to defend herself/himself.
Surely there could have been some way to acquire the cells
for the research and development process through more ethical means. A
press release from the Charlotte Lozier
Institute states such possibilities.
Vaccine developers should discontinue benefitting from
abortion to create life-saving medical treatments because the ends shouldn’t
justify the means. And it surely can’t
be that hard to adjust the research and development methods to be more ethical,
so that a life-saving vaccine can truly affirm a culture of life.
I am not the only person who
has felt hesitancy at getting this vaccine because of the ethical concerns
about its remote connection to abortion.
And some people I’ve talked with have made the decision to get
vaccinated despite those ethical concerns.
No one should have to wrestle with the conflict of choosing
between a life-saving vaccine and somehow participating in the act of
abortion, even if remote, when suitable alternatives are available. In the same spirit as the language in the aforementioned Charlotte Lozier Institute
press release, I call upon these companies to stop using cells derived
from an aborted fetus and use life-affirming methods. It’s time we cease those actions that make abortion look
acceptable, while at the same time, caring for those already living and in need
of medical care.
I waited so long to be vaccinated because I needed
to wrestle with these ethical concerns, which I feel are absolutely sufficient
reason to hesitate on vaccination. In fact, my delay has given me a
chance to affirm my stance on why it is wrong for Pfizer and others to use
abortion-derived cells in research and development methods.
And I get the
vaccination with conflicted feelings in me because of this
ethical dilemma that surely could have been avoided.
Government officials and other high-profile figures including Cardinal Cupich have urged people to get vaccinated. Even the Oak Park Health Department is conducting a campaign to address vaccine hesitancy. It’s time that these figures not only just urge vaccination, but that also call upon medical companies to
switch to ethical methods in research and development. Indeed, urging the vaccine developers to use
ethical alternatives is an easy way to help address a major reason
for vaccine hesitancy, as I know it would have for me. I have written notes to President Biden, Governor Pritzker, Cardinal Cupich, and the Oak Park Health Department to urge them to publicly call upon vaccine developers to use ethical methods.
There are many legitimate
reasons people have for choosing to decline vaccination, including these
ethical concerns. And I plead with these figures to dialogue with these concerns. Surely
doing so would go a long way to address many people’s hesitancy to get
vaccinated, especially if it ever comes to the point that booster vaccination
shots are needed.
I personally would feel much better about being vaccinated
if I saw figures, such as the ones I've written to, publicly advocate for medical companies to switch to ethical
research methods, for the sake of not only those made vulnerable by the virus,
but also the millions of innocent children who have died in abortions, so no more children have to perish in abortions.
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| Flowers placed at the gravesite of the remains of 2,033 aborted children at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside, IL, at the conclusion of a prayer service for the annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, September 18, 2021 |
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