Advocate for Ethical Research

In his letter on COVID-19 vaccines, Bishop Daly recommends two basic ways we can advocate for ethical research that respects the dignity of human life:

1. Voicing our moral objections to organizations (like pharamaceutical companies) responsible for the ongoing us of abortion-derived cell lines.
2. Supporting research endeavors that can create pro-life alternatives to biotechnologies connected to violations of human dignity.

Click on the headings below to learn more about these ways to promote respect for human diginity in biomedical research.

Three reasons to advocate for ethical research:

1. Voicing our moral objection and working for change reinforces our opposition to the evil of abortion and helps preserve the clarity of our conscience.
2. The issue of abortion-derived cell lines is bigger than vaccines alone. Fr. Nicanor Austriao, OP notes that over 58,000 scientific papers have used HEK293 (an abortion-derived cell line), and Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC compellingly and disturbingly points out that many common medicines are similarly connected to problematic cell lines in this article. 
3. The ongoing use of ethically problematic materials can keep Catholic and other pro-life scientiests out of research because of the moral issues they may face in the lab. 

The main diocesan resource page for moral guidance on COVID-19 vaccines can be found here.

You can send a moral objection letter to Pfizer and Moderna at the following addresses:

Angela Hwang, President 
Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals
235 East 42nd Street 
New York, NY 10017

Stephen Hoge, MD, President
Moderna Global Headquarters
200 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA 02139

You can use the following text for your letter. This text has been researched to be scientifically and bioethically accurate. It also includes an optional paragraph about making a donation in support of the John Paul II Medical Research Institute. You do not have to donate to this Institute as part of your protest; it is simply an additional way to support pro-life research (see the next section below to learn more). You can easily delete this paragraph without impacting the rest of the letter.

To whom it may concern:

As a conscientious consumer of health care products, I write to share with you my moral protest while accepting your COVID-19 vaccine and to advocate for the increased use of ethically sourced materials.

I join scores of millions of Americans in holding the philosophical position that a new and unique human person comes into existence at the moment of conception and that innocent human life ought not be killed intentionally. Therefore, I believe that procured abortion is an objectively grave moral evil. Thus, I have been concerned about the potential use of abortion-derived materials in the effort to bring COVID-19 vaccine candidates to market.

First, I gratefully acknowledge that your company did not utilize abortion-derived cells in the actual production of your vaccine. This induces me to favor your vaccine over other proposed vaccine candidates that would utilize abortion-derived cells in their production, such as the candidate by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

However, I am disappointed that at least one abortion-derived cell line (HEK293) was used in other activities that helped bring your vaccine to market, such as confirmatory lab tests on your mRNA component. The ongoing use of abortion-derived cells further undermines the dignity of the original victim and scandalously minimizes the moral gravity of abortion itself. I encourage your company to invest in technologies and practices that will decrease and eliminate its reliance on abortion-derived cell lines and other materials.

Many may say that the use of abortion-derived cell lines like HEK293 is unavoidable due to their widespread utilization in the biomedical industry. This does not excuse their use but rather reveals the systemic nature of this ethical pitfall, which can and ought to be rectified by the development of ethically sourced cell lines and other materials. Therefore, on the occasion of accepting this vaccine, I am making a sacrificial donation in support of the John Paul II Medical Research Institute, which has been developing biotechnological solutions that do not depend on the victimization of unborn human persons.

In conclusion, while I am accepting your vaccine to contribute to the greater good during this pandemic, I object to the ongoing use of abortion-derived materials and encourage your company to find alternative ethical means to develop and manufacture your products. Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,
 

The Catholic Medical Association has also made available another moral objection template letter, which you can access here.

By supporting pro-life research we can contribute to the creation of biotechnologies that can replace abortion-derived cell lines and other biological materials that have been dependent on the violation of human dignity. This is a proactive and solution-minded pro-life response to longstanding ethical challenges facing biomedical research. The diocese recommends making a financial donation to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute. The Institute has produced its own ethical cell lines and is in the pre-clinical stage of using these cell lines to create their own COVID-19 vaccine.

Learn more about the John Paul II Medical Research Institute and support its work at www.jp2mri.org.