Fighting a Mandatory COVID-19 ‘Vaccine’, by Jay Richards

By Jay Richards, The Stream, March 14, 2021

Jay Richards, Ph.D., is the Executive Editor of The Stream, a Research Assistant Professor in the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute. Follow him on Twitter.

Thoughtful Christians have been debating the morality of vaccines* tainted by abortion for years. The issue has become pressing recently because all of the FDA-authorized treatments for COVID-19 have some connection to cell lines originally derived from an aborted child.

Not everyone has the time and attention to sort through all the moral issues involved, so most of us rely on trusted sources for guidance. Most prolife groups have come down in favor of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Though these companies tested their drugs with embryonic cell lines, they’re less implicated in abortion than some others, such as the treatments from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

Catholic University professor Catherine Pakaluk is concerned that there seems to be a “growing consensus among Catholic ethicists that vaccines derived from aborted fetal tissue are not only morally permissible (licit), but also (nearly) morally obligatory for the sake of the common good.” It’s one thing to decide that, given all the circumstances, it might be okay for someone to get a vaccine. It’s quite another to claim that others must do so, if they really care about society and their fellow human beings.  …

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