As Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, the Archdiocese at New Orleans has announced that taking this particular vaccine would be “immoral,” as it uses abortion-derived cell lines in its production process.
“The archdiocese must instruct Catholics that the latest vaccine from Janssen/Johnson & Johnson is morally compromised as it uses the abortion-derived cell line in development and production of the vaccine as well as the testing,” the Archdiocese of New Orleans said in a statement Friday.
Interestingly, the Archdiocese’s proclamation conflicts with the Vatican and Pope Francis, who said in December that it was OK to take human cell-line vaccines. The Johnson & Johnson vaccines is produced with cells that come from a line called HEK293, which originated from babies aborted in the 1970s.
The present cell line has been multiplied and reproduced over the years, so they aren’t technically the same cells that came directly from the original aborted tissue. The idea that they originated from aborted tissue, however, doesn’t sit well with all Catholic clergy, despite the Vatican’s approval.
SOURCE: The Washington Post March 2, 2021