A report in today's Tidings News details a Vatican study on vaccines requested by a Florida pro-life group. The group's claims threaten to create tensions between state health authorities and Catholics over required vaccination for children. Children of God for Life says that the human cell lines used to cultivate the production of a number of vaccines used today come from tissue derived from two human fetuses voluntarily aborted in 1964 and 1970. In June 2003 the group asked the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for a formal statement on the church's position concerning the morality of using vaccines associated with human tissue coming from abortions.
The Vatican's study of the issue has now been released, and it does not squarely support the Florida group's contentions. While affirming the right of parents to refuse "morally objectionable" vaccines for their children, it urges substantial caution before a parent does so. Explaining the ruling, Msgr. Jacques Suaudeau, a Vatican spokesman, said: "If it is a question of protecting the whole population and avoiding death and malformation in others, that is more important" than abstaining from vaccines developed from abortions that might have occurred decades ago. The Vatican's ruling held that doctors and parents who use the vaccines for health reasons are carrying out "a form of very remote ... material cooperation," reflecting a "very mild" immoral act.
UPDATE: The full text of the letter sent by the Vatican to the Children of God for Life is now available online. Also the Children of God for Life claims that the Catholic New Service's report on the matter (the one linked above) contained misquotations, inaccuracies and omitted important information. A different report on the developments was published by Catholic World News.
