Well, this is just what we need. If there wasn't already enough vaccine hesitancy, some US Catholic churches are warning their congregations that they might want to avoid the recently-approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine because aborted fetuses were used in its development.
This might sound like yet another conspiracy theory, but there is at least some truth in it, although the whole truth is somewhat more nuanced. It turns out that the J&J vaccine did use "cell lines" developed over decades from what were originally voluntarily-aborted fetuses. Furthermore, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines used such cell lines during their confirmation or testing phase of their vaccines (although not in the development or production phases).
Cell lines are laboratory-grown cells, literally thousands of generations removed from the original aborted fetal tissue (in J&J's case, from a 1985 Dutch elective abortion). Such cell lines are used in all kinds of medical research around the world, in order to avoid using actual fetal tissue. They are well-studied industry standards for safe and reliable vaccine production, and have been for years.
To be fair, the Vatican has issued clear guidance on the subject, indicating that Catholics CAN in good faith accept COVID-19 vaccines created using cell line technology, at least while alternative vaccines are not available, although it adds the pseudo-legal rider that this "does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses".
The St. Louis Archdiocese suggests that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are less "morally compromised" than the Johnson & Johnson one, as does the New Orleans Archdiocese, although in doing so they are treading a VERY fine line of theological and moral argument.
So, it kind of depends on your definition of an aborted fetus, and just where on the continuum your particular moral values lie.
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