I signed up for a COVID19 vaccine trial. My brother asked me if I was crazy. I feel very uncrazy. I was willing to put my arm in line to test what scientists (like myself) had already tested and were ready to test in the field. I am also encouraged by the memory of my youngest brother providing testing for new leukemia treatments in the day when such treatments were not yet able to save him. In the end , I wasn't needed for the trial but I was willing. Initial results in Israel suggest that the vaccines are as good as they are advertised to be and I would have been first in line for one here in the U.S.. But I have stepped out of line.
I listened to a radio program in which Dennis Prager received a call from a woman who expressed concern about the link between the vaccine and fetal cells from aborted babies and thought, "Really?! Why haven't I heard about this? Is it true?" So I did some research and found a Catholic news article that listed the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines as "ethically uncontroversial." But an author quoted in the article (whose voice I was glad was not censored out) said,
I'm thankful that the voice of Dr. Stacy Trasancos (a chemist) was not removed from the dialog. Her full comments are worth reading. Her comments about the amazing human fetal cell atlas ends with the compelling call,...that listing a vaccine which has even a remote connection to aborted tissue as "ethically uncontroversial" could undermine the Catholic fight for ethical medicines.
Instead of assigning this vaccine to a category that suggests no more caution is needed, I think it is better to slow down and look at the big picture... We need to speak up loudly with clarity and courage about the ethics and insist upon an ethical option. It could redirect this entire issue towards the good.
Given all this, it seems that those who oppose the exploitation of aborted children in scientific research are defeated, except for a still small truth.
If we are going to effectively work to end this practice so that we are no longer backed into this corner, there must be a movement to get back to the first principles of the dignity of human life — a sanctity based not on avoiding bodily suffering at any cost, but focused on achieving the happiness of an eternity in heaven and a realization that we are not just atoms and molecules but body and rational soul.
This movement must be evangelical and reach beyond Catholic circles. It will take the conviction to say aloud that the ends do not justify the means, and that not all knowledge and cures are worth discovering if it requires sacrificing the unwanted and innocent among us to science.
It will take the passion to fight for our very humanity — for even though we may gain the whole atlas of every cell from the beginning of human life to its end, research profits nothing if it comes at the expense of the human soul.
