Is Wrong Ever Right?

In 1961, Leonard Hayflick, an employee of Wistar Institute (a research division of the University of Pennsylvania) concluded that fetal cell lines had great potential in the production of vaccines. Dr. Sven Gard of Stockholm, Sweden, who had supplied Hayflick with fetuses for his research, hand picked a fetus from healthy parents with no family history of disease or cancer to send to Hayflick for vaccine production. Lung tissue from this fetus, a female at 3-months gestation, was used to produce the WI-38 human diploid cell line. Around 1970, MRC-5, a second human diploid cell line, was established in Great Britain by the Medical Research Council. The fetal lung cells used in this line came from a male at 14-weeks gestation. These two cell lines continue to thrive in laboratory conditions today.

In order to produce a viral vaccine, scientists need to grow large quantities of the specific virus. Almost all viruses need to be placed in living cells to reproduce. For several decades, scientists have used cell lines WI-38 and MRC-5, lines developed from aborted fetuses, to prepare hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines. Of the vaccinations recommended by the CDC in the United States, the following are usually derived from cell lines from aborted fetuses:

Polio
Measles, Mumps, Rubella
Varicella-Chickenpox
Hepatitis-A

Human cell lines have proven to be effective cultures for the production of vaccines, but biotechnology holds much promise for producing vaccines without using human cells. However, unless pharmaceutical companies are pressured, they will not underwrite the cost of developing an alternative culture. As Christians, we must make our objection to the use of aborted fetuses in vaccine production heard. Wrong is never right.

Sources: Children of God for Life; ViroMed Laboratories; National Network for Immunization Information; Laurence F. Roberge, M.S.; American Life League;

May God have mercy on our nation.
United to Stop Abortion