SPUC has produced an information sheet for those concerned about whether COVID-19 vaccines are being developed using cells derived from tissue originally taken from an unborn baby.

Dr Anthony McCarty commented: “For those of us who see the original abortion as the unjustified taking of the life of the unborn child, such use of the products of abortion, even a cell line derived from the original tissue, risks sending out a harmful social message concerning the value of early human life.”

SPUC is providing factual information on this issue to help people in their ethical decision-making.

Vaccines raising no pro-life concerns

Some vaccines are being developed without the use of foetal cell lines. These vaccines may involve plant or animal cells. For example: cells from insects, tobacco plants and hamster ovaries.

A team at Imperial College London is working on a ‘synthetic’ vaccine i.e. a ‘cell-free’ method.

There are no pro-life concerns with these vaccines.

Vaccines being developed with the use of cells ultimately derived from tissue from an aborted baby

However, some Covid-19 vaccines are being developed using cells ultimately derived from tissue from aborted babies, including:

• The HEK 293 cell-line derived from foetal tissue probably from an abortion in 1972.
• The PER C6 cell-line from an 18-week old unborn child aborted in 1985. 

The team at Oxford University is developing a vaccine using the HEK 293 cell-line. This cell-line was originally created from tissue taken from the kidney of an unborn child probably aborted in 1972.

The Oxford team is leading the way in the race to produce a vaccine. The vaccine could be available in September / October 2020.

“Society should respect the conscience of its members”

Dr McCarthy added: “Even those not opposed to all abortion may well have serious and substantial moral concerns over practices which seem to treat opportunistically the remains of an aborted unborn child.

“Society needs to respect the consciences of its members who uphold the inviolability of human life from conception and who do not wish to be involved in anything they may see as complicit with the unjust taking of such life.”

In April 2020 SPUC wrote a letter to Jo Churchill the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care), requesting that the Government make available vaccines which are not made using cell lines originally derived from the tissue of aborted unborn children.

SPUC still awaits a response to this request.

If you would like a copy of SPUC’s information sheet on  COVID-19 vaccines, which includes advice on what you can do, please contact information@spuc.org.uk