Background:
The recent media attention on the anti-vaccination movement has also brought back into the limelight an often overlooked, but deeply troubling practice: the use of human cells cultured from electively aborted human fetuses in the production of many common vaccines.
While this might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, this practice is far from a secret. The scientific community and vaccine manufacturers themselves readily admit the use of cell lines like MRC-5, cultured from the lung tissue of an electively aborted 14-week gestation baby.
While pro-life, religious and other leaders and activists have long raised the alarm about the unethical way in which these vaccines are produced, to date vaccine manufacturers like Merck have ignored requests to stop the practice of using the aborted fetal cell lines.
Even the Vatican and the United States Catholic bishops have studied the issue, concluding that while it can be permissible for parents to use the vaccines when there is no alternative available, parents have a “grave” responsibility to express their opposition to the practice, and to look for ethical alternatives whenever possible.
Meanwhile, some pro-life parents have opted against using the unethical vaccines until such a time as alternatives are available, even though vaccine manufacturers could easily address these concerns.
With the debate over vaccination raging now, the time is ripe to create a groundswell of opposition from parents and families around the world who are committed to holding these biomedical companies to account.
Sign the petition, and then share it far and wide.
