The Covid Vaccine And Abortion Pt 2 - Guiding Attitudes And Defining The Problem

In my first post, I sought to introduce the idea of "Moral Distance" and the quandary of living a good life in an evil world. 

Two guiding attitudes

As we consider the question at hand, I suggest two attitudes for us to uphold.

The first is that of perspective. The dilemma that Christians face today when they consider whether they should take the Covid-19 vaccine is not new. It’s an old one with centuries of precedent, and we would be wise to learn from those that came before us. We must see that whether we like it or not, we will always be living in uncomfortable proximity to wickedness so long as we are on this earth before Jesus returns. We must not resign ourselves to evil, but acknowledge the discomfort that comes with it. We must remember that the line between good and evil cuts through our own hearts. And we must face the bleak truth that there are all too often “moral dead ends”, where there are no good options, only a choice between many evil options, some of which are less evil than others.

Along with perspective, we must add well-channeled passion. For at least two generations of our society, the issue of abortion has been the preeminent culture war battleground in the West. It is a lightning rod for rage, misunderstanding, hatred, and lack of empathy. The debate has been grossly oversimplified, both sides constantly, willfully, and maliciously misrepresent each other, and many times it has been insensibly turned into a litmus test for moral purity.

I am not suggesting that we approach the issue completely absent of passion. The stakes are high here, but with high stakes comes the danger of short tempers. Christians are told to love good and abhor evil. But in our passion to be passionate about promoting good, we must make extreme efforts to be humble, charitable, and loving, even to our ideological enemies.

Not even that long ago, we were all debating whether it was evil to buy shoes made by slaves, eat bananas grown in a banana republic, make omelets out of cage eggs, indulge in Amazon prime, or use iPhones that were assembled by factory workers in such squalid conditions that suicide rates skyrocketed. The first danger of the Covid vaccine problem is the danger of alarmism. The Covid vaccine dilemma is a serious one, but if we viciously fight tooth and nail over this issue, choosing to die on this particular hill, and yet we don’t lose a single minute of sleep over all the other ways we participate in or are uncomfortably close to evil, then we might be in danger of lacking perspective.

Defining the problem with precision

At the heart of the Covid vaccine question for Christians is whether I am complicit in the evil of abortion if I receive a vaccine that was created with the help of aborted fetal tissue. Affirming the principle of moral distance, we first need to be clear on what exactly this means. First of all, is it even true? Is it true that aborted fetal tissue was used, and if so, in what manner? Is there actual aborted fetal tissue in every vial of the vaccine, or only the very first vaccine, which was then reproduced without any more abortion tissue? Was the abortion tissue only used for research and testing purposes? Did the research and testing relate directly to the Covid-19 vaccine, or was it used only for general research in the area of vaccine creation?

You can understand now why these questions are crucial. Each answer to these questions help us understand better our exact moral distance to the evil of abortion. The extremes of the distance can help us to appreciate the importance of this issue. For example, if every dose of the vaccine created requires the abortion of a child, I don’t think there is any Christian on earth who would be okay with that. But on the other hand, if the practice of abortion was only generally related to the vaccine insofar as it contributed to our overall medical knowledge which eventually led to the innovation of the covid vaccine (in other words, if we have a Leonardo Da Vinci-type situation), then I think the distance is great enough for us not to be too worried.

There are other questions that help us get a full picture of the situation. Was the use of aborted fetal tissue absolutely necessary (i.e. no abortion, no vaccine), or was it a matter of convenience? Could we have a vaccine a little later down the line without the use of aborted fetal tissue if we were only a little more patient or if we had invested a little more resources to alternative vaccine production techniques?

These are questions that are out of the scope of pastors and theologians and must be answered with the help of Christians in the medical community. But they are so important and the require our serious considering if we are to provide our people with accurate, sound pastoral advice.

The following assertions can be made about the vaccine, which provide crucial context.

• The “aborted fetal tissue” in question are immortalized cell lines that are continuously cultivated in a laboratory setting which have originated from abortions. Though these cell lines originated from human fetal tissue, they no longer contain fetal body parts or any cells from the original fetus. Source.
  
  
• The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the two leading vaccines which have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a result of Operation Warp Speed, used the aforementioned abortion cell lines in their testing process, but NOT during production. Source.
  
  
• Human fetal cell lines have been used to create a wide variety of vaccines since the 1960s, including many that are in current use, such as those used for rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A, and shingles. Source.
  
  
• Human fetal cell lines are vital to producing effective vaccines. Because they resemble human cells, they enable the vaccine to produce a specific immune response in humans that animal cells cannot effectively imitate. Source. 
  
  
• The cell lines that are currently most widely used and vital to the medical industry are from abortions that took place decades ago. No widely used cell lines from recent abortions have been produced. Source. 

In my final post, I'll give my opinion on whether it's ethical for Christians to take the covid-19 vaccine, as well as share some additional resources.