Vaccines and Fetal Cell Lines

Anti-vaccination activists and extreme opponents of abortion like to use language that gives the idea that ongoing abortions are necessary for the manufacture of vaccines.  The truth is rather different, as even the Catholic Church has recognized.

There are three cell lines, derived from three abortions in the 1960s, that are involved in vaccine manufacture. From the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii): Immunization Issues: Human Fetal Links with Some Vaccines

Two different strains of human diploid cell cultures made from fetuses have been used extensively for vaccine production for decades. One was developed in the United States in 1961 (called WI-38) and the other in the United Kingdom in 1966 (called MRC-5).

WI-38 came from lung cells from a female fetus of 3-months gestation and MRC-5 was developed from lung cells from a 14-week-old male fetus. Both fetuses were intentionally aborted, but neither was aborted for the purpose of obtaining diploid cells. The fetal tissues that eventually became WI-38 and the MRC-5 cell cultures were removed from fetuses that were dead. The cellular biologists who made the cell cultures did not induce the abortions.

..........

The virus that led to the only rubella vaccine available in the United States and that is widely used overseas (Meruvax II, Merck) came from tissues obtained at the time of an abortion performed on a rubella virus-infected mother.  The abortion was not conducted in order to isolate the virus, but rather because the mother and the fetus were infected with wild rubella virus that posed a risk of major birth defects.

Since that wild strain of rubella virus (known as RA27/3) was isolated, it has been grown in human fetal diploid cells. There is no need to obtain additional cells from aborted fetuses to sustain the supply of attenuated rubella viruses used to manufacture additional batches of rubella vaccine for the future.

During the development of the present rubella vaccine, cells from animals other than humans were also studied for vaccine manufacture but these proved to be less safe and/or less effective than the RA27/3 vaccine grown in WI-38 cells.

According to the PONTIFICIA ACADEMIA PRO VITA, (pdf file downloaded from NCBF Vatican Response) an English translation of a commentary which appeared in Italian in the scholarly journal Medicina e Morale, gives a list (as of 2005) of  the  vaccines are manufactured using the cell lines  WI-38, MRC-5 and or RA 27/3.

 A) Live vaccines against rubella:

• the monovalent vaccines against rubella Meruvax® (Merck) (U.S.), Rudivax® (Sanofi Pasteur, Fr.), and Ervevax® (RA 27/3) (GlaxoSmithKline, Belgium);
• the combined vaccine MR against rubella and measles, commercialized with the name of M-R-VAX® (Merck, US) and Rudi-Rouvax® (AVP, France);
• the combined vaccine against rubella and mumps marketed under the name of Biavax® (Merck, U.S.),
• the combined vaccine MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) against rubella, mumps and measles, marketed under the name of M-M-R® II (Merck, US), R.O.R.®, Trimovax® (Sanofi Pasteur, Fr.), and Priorix® (GlaxoSmithKline UK).

B) Other vaccines, also prepared using human cell lines from aborted foetuses:

• two vaccines against hepatitis A, one produced by Merck (VAQTA), the other one produced by GlaxoSmithKline (HAVRIX), both of them being prepared using MRC-5;
• one vaccine against chicken pox, Varivax®, produced by Merck using WI-38 and MRC-5;
• one vaccine against poliomyelitis, the inactivated polio virus vaccine Poliovax® (Aventis-Pasteur, Fr.) using MRC-5;
• one vaccine against rabies, Imovax®, produced by Aventis Pasteur,  MRC-5 strain;
• one vaccine against smallpox, AC AM 1000, prepared by Acambis using MRC-5, which as of 2005 was still on trial.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBF) on the Pontifical Academy for Life Statement regarding the Use of Vaccines

From the FAQ:

What is the Church's teaching about the use of certain vaccines that have a distant historical association with abortion?

There are a number of vaccines that are made in descendent cells of aborted fetuses. Abortion is a grave crime against innocent human life. We should always ask our physician whether the product he proposes for our use has an historical association with abortion. We should use an alternative vaccine if one is available.

What does it mean when we say that these products are made in "descendent cells"?

Descendent cells are the medium in which these vaccines are prepared. The cell lines under consideration were begun using cells taken from one or more fetuses aborted almost 40 years ago. Since that time the cell lines have grown independently. It is important to note that descendent cells are not the cells of the aborted child. They never, themselves, formed a part of the victim's body.

What do I do if there is no alternative to a vaccine produced from these cell lines?

One is morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion. The reason is that the risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine. This is especially important for parents, who have a moral obligation to protect the life and health of their children and those around them.

Comments

[mike stanton]

Great post, Liz!
Regarding the UK fetus. The abortion took place prior to the 1967 Abortion Act. Therefore it only took place because continuing with the pregnancy would have threatened the life of the pregnant woman. I suppose they could have let her die and then extracted the cells from the dead fetus. Would that have met with moral approval from the pro-lifers?

[isles]

I find it more than a bit repulsive that antivaxers take such satisfaction in insisting that vaccines contain "aborted fetal tissue." No matter what one's position on abortion, it seems improper to capitalize on what is usually a really difficult situation for everyone involved.

[Prometheus]

How is it that people can but into the idea that current vaccines contain "aborted fetal tissue" simply because they are grown on cell lines that were derived (in the 1960's) from aborted fetuses? There has been no new "aborted fetal tissue" used in these cell lines for 47 (WI-38) and 42 (MRC-5) years.

[NB: At the time these cell lines were developed, abortion was legal in the US and UK ONLY in order to save the mother's life or (in the US, at least) in cases of rape or incest]

This is nothing more than deceptive propaganda to promote a (hidden) political agenda.

Prometheus

[Meg]

In all do respect, I Strongly beleve that vaccines are being used from abortioing babies and that are some reports that it is also a link to autism. Both vacccines and abortion are using deceptive propaganda to make some $$$$$$. I still strongly belive that,(in some cases), vaccines are caused by autism, but So many anti-vaccines
people are using the deceptive propaganda that autism are the one and only caused by vaccines and never told that there is many causes of autism such as genenics, premature births, Frigle X Syndrome, birth injury, illness, brian tummers, birth over 42 wks in genstion, family history of autism, etc. I beleve that people need to stop overlook the causes of autism and need to start helping people who is on the spectrum and their families so that they fave a better live and quit wasting their time to find a cure because, like myself, so many people who is on the specturm want to want to have a job, be inderpendent, and want ot enjoy life amd I also want people who is on the lower end or the specturm, to have the same thing because I don't them to end up with evil people who want to distory them when their parients or caregivers who is unable to care for them and the people, who is so focus on these things, DONES NOT care about it.

[Amy Bauman]

actually from what i have researched the little girl was aborted simply because her family decided they already had too many children...not for medical reasons. it i s too bad we have been deceived.

[Kurt Kost]

Prometheus is right abortion was illegal in the U.S. except for rape or incest which is why one of these abortions of a U.S. mother was performed in Sweden.(Because they had too many children)

[Debbie Vanden Berk]

I vaccinate my children...or have until I accidentally discovered that vaccines can carry cell lines from aborted fetuses...

I found this out from CDC's website after my child had a funny reaction to meningococcal vaccine.

To a pro-life person, this was a devastating discovery which led me to halt all vaccination until I could learn more.

It is correct that the Church allows a family to continue to vaccinate but it also allows for a family to refuse. It talks about our need to carefully weigh the risk of our children and the community against the risk of objecting...no matter the path chosen, we, those of us following the Catholic teaching anyways, are called to put pressure on the pharmaceutical companies, doctors, etc. to stop using aborted fetal cell lines and to develop moral alternatives.

This only seems right, fair, and just. This is not anti-vaccine, but anti- aborted fetal cell line vaccine.

Since there is currently "no incentive" (taken from a vaccine developer site) to create a different cell line to replace what is already working, then we need to do something to convince otherwise.

It is a moral imperative that our countries accommodate the religious convictions of people while also striving to protect their health. There is no reason why a moral alternative cannot be developed.

I also studied the CDC site and others about the aborted cells WI 38, MRC- 5, RA 27, and now PER 6 (which flies in the face of "no more aborted fetuses are needed..") those numbers refer to the number of aborted baby that the line was developed from...so like WI-38...the 38th aborted baby taken was where they were able to get the cells for the cell line, MRC - the 5th baby, RA the 27th baby, and PER the 6th...this is no small number of abortions - even 40 years ago. On such a moral evil to pro-lifers, it is hard to believe anything good can come of it...though if good has come from it, it is truly by the Grace of God.

We should lobby hard for moral alternatives and in the meantime, the choice to vaccinate or not, must be decided by each family's conscience and convictions.

There is a way to make this work so all are happy and all is moral...we just need to work a little harder to make it happen.

Debbie

[Laura]

The argument should not be about whether the vaccines contain the aborted foetal tissue or not - the issue is that aborted foetal tissue was ever used in the first place to allow medical scientists to create these vaccines. They should scrap their original process and start again, making it a clean process from start to finish!. That's the main issue!

[xanax]

Really great post, Thank you for sharing This knowledge.Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!

[lacoste observe]

edited comment to remove advertising link
The argument should not be about whether the vaccines contain the aborted foetal tissue or not - the issue is that aborted foetal tissue was ever used in the first place to allow medical scientists to create these vaccines. They should scrap their original process and start again, making it a clean process from start to finish!. That's the main issue!