• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A boy in Peshawar, Pakistan, receives polio vaccine drops outside a hospital April 30, 2019. Sanofi Pasteur, the largest biotech company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines, recently sought and received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of its decision to ends use of aborted fetal cell lines for vaccines. (CNS photo/Fayaz Aziz, Reuters)

Global biotech company ends use of aborted fetal cell lines for vaccines

September 21, 2020
By Julie Asher
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Coronavirus, News, Respect Life, World News

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic pro-life leaders say they are seeing some progress in the development of vaccines with the use of ethical animal cell lines instead of cell lines derived from abortions.

A case in point is the decision by Sanofi Pasteur to no longer use an aborted fetal cell line in producing its polio vaccines, a move recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sanofi Pasteur, the largest biotech company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines, requested the agency’s approval for switching from using an aborted fetal cell line called MRC-5 to using an ethical animal cell line to produce its polio combination vaccines Pentacel and Quadracel.

The vaccines division of the French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi is one of the companies currently developing a COVID-19 vaccine by utilizing “cell lines not connected to unethical procedures and methods.” Inovio and the John Paul II Medical Research Institute are other such companies.

Sanofi Pasteur also recently ended production of its stand-alone polio vaccine, Poliovax, which also had been manufactured using MRC-5, according to the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, based in Philadelphia. The corporation will retain another stand-alone polio vaccine, IPOL, that is ethically produced.

Joseph Meaney, in a recent statement posted on the centers’ website, www.ncbcenter.org, congratulated the company for its recent initiatives. “The NCBC is pleased to see that progress is being made in this area.”

“It is my fervent prayer that no successful COVID-19 vaccine will emerge that was developed with the use of ethically tainted cell lines,” Meaney said. “If the nightmare scenario of the only available vaccine having a link to abortion comes about, it will cause major conscience problems for pro-lifers and Catholics.

“I am rather confident that we will be spared this additional ethical scourge from COVID-19, but the NCBC will certainly follow developments closely and use all the means at our disposal to spread needed ethical information on this issue.”

After the FDA approved Sanofi Pasteur’s decision to stop using MRC-5 in its development of vaccines, Greg Schleppenbach, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, sent an alert to diocesan pro-life directors about the development and asking them to in turn send a message of thanks to Sanofi Pasteur.

“One important step we can take to ensure the production of ethical vaccines is to recognize and thank drug companies, like Sanofi Pasteur, when they move away from unethical vaccine production,” Schleppenbach said in his alert. “We can hope that, with some encouragement, other vaccine manufacturers may consider creating other morally acceptable vaccines.”

Similarly, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who is chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, recently wrote to all bishops sharing this same news.

They asked their brother bishops to share this information with diocesan leaders and especially with Catholic health care leaders.

“As you may already know, the only vaccines readily available in the United States for some contagious diseases (e.g., rubella, chickenpox and Hepatitis A) have been manufactured using fetal tissue from induced abortions,” Schleppenbach said in his alert. “This creates a problem of conscience for some parents.”

He said the Pontifical Academy for Life recommended in 2005 — and reiterated in its 2017 “Note on Italian Vaccine Issue” — that “a long-term solution lies in working to ensure that future vaccines and other medicines are not based on cooperation with practices that demean human life.”

“The 2005 statement noted that physicians and parents ‘have a duty to take recourse to alternative vaccines (if they exist), putting pressure on the political authorities and health systems so that other vaccines without moral problems become available,'” Schleppenbach continued.

“This applies to products with a connection to abortion,” he said, “such as vaccines, as well as to projected therapies from destruction of human embryos for their stem cells.”

He thanked the pro-life directors “in advance for spreading this good news” about Sanofi Pasteur “and for sharing your own gratitude with the manufacturer.”

“We welcome these opportunities where we can illustrate the church’s eager embrace of scientific advancement when it upholds the dignity of the human person and the precious gift of human life,” he added.

In April, Archbishop Naumann, Bishop Rhoades and the chairmen of the USCCB’s domestic policy committee and its health care issues subcommittee were joined by the leaders of several health care, bioethics and pro-life organizations in “urgently and respectfully” imploring Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the FDA commissioner, to ensure any vaccines developed for the coronavirus “are free from any connection to abortion.”

“To be clear, we strongly support efforts to develop an effective, safe, and widely available vaccine as quickly as possible,” the leaders said in an April 17 letter to Hahn.

“However, we also strongly urge our federal government to ensure that fundamental moral principles are followed in the development of such vaccines, most importantly, the principle that human life is sacred and should never be exploited,” they said.

Copies of the letter were sent to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Humans Services Secretary Alex M. Azar.

“It is critically important that Americans have access to a vaccine that is produced ethically: No American should be forced to choose between being vaccinated against this potentially deadly virus and violating his or her conscience,” the group said.

Editor’s Note: The full text of the letter to the FDA commissioner with all the signatories can be found online at https://bit.ly/35NBA6l.

More Respect Life news

Federal judge’s pending ruling could block abortion drug from nationwide sale

Pro-life groups seek commitments on federal abortion limits from 2024 GOP contenders

Bishop calls ‘reproductive justice’ lecture series with abortion doula ‘scandal,’ ‘unworthy’ of Notre Dame university

Wyoming becomes first state to ban abortion pills

‘New pro-life agenda’ sees wins in state battles to expand Medicaid coverage for new moms

South Carolina GOP lawmakers’ bill opens up women to death penalty over abortion, a move pro-life leaders reject

At prayer breakfast, Catholics challenged to assist Ukraine, mothers and children post-Dobbs

Catholics must reject ‘sectarian partisan lens’ and ‘live the truth’ of their faith, says former congressman

Assisted suicide proposals in Maryland called ‘unethical, discriminatory and dangerous’

Copyright © 2020 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Julie Asher

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Fire guts historic Catholic school in parish connected to St. John Neumann
  • Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81
  • Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm

| Latest Local News |

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

| Latest World News |

Avoid polarizing debate, promote healthy scientific discussion, pope says

CRS, USAID help Ethiopia ‘at a time of great need’ amid devastating drought

A ‘nation of immigrants’ should identify with migrants’ plight and human dignity, says Boston cardinal

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Avoid polarizing debate, promote healthy scientific discussion, pope says
  • CRS, USAID help Ethiopia ‘at a time of great need’ amid devastating drought
  • A ‘nation of immigrants’ should identify with migrants’ plight and human dignity, says Boston cardinal
  • An invitation from God
  • Vatican envoy warns UN General Assembly racism mutating and ‘reemerging’ globally
  • ‘We all need to do more’: House hearing demands action over Nicaragua regime’s anti-Catholic persecution
  • Notre Dame Cathedral reopening date announced as reconstruction on its famous spire wraps up in eastern France
  • AI and the meaning of life: Tech industry turns to religious leaders
  • Movie Review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4, a festival of fatality’

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED