Which Vaccines Were Developed with Aborted Fetal Cells? (And Are There Alternatives?)

Hi Lady!

A little while back, I heard from a listener whose baby had an upcoming appointment to get his shots. She asked me for help understanding which vaccines were originally developed using fetal cells and whether there were alternatives. Usually I leave specifically baby-related topics to other capable resources, but this is a topic that matters very much to many moms, so I'm addressing it here.

When I was growing up, only pro-life circles were talking about this, and there were almost no search results for those seeking answers about which vaccines were derived from aborted fetal tissue, or whether there were alternatives available. I'm heartened that this is now a common enough conversation that nationally reputable secular children's hospitals are addressing it.

I sent her two links, one from a scientific source and one from a religious source.

• The scientific source is Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania's (CHOP) Vaccine Education Center. a nationally well-respected children's hospital. They answer all of the most common questions about childhood vaccines that were originally developed using cells from aborted babies.

• The religious source is the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), a well-respected organization for all things bioethics. While the CHOP website addresses whether Catholics can (or are morally obligated to) choose to vaccinate their children with these unethically developed vaccines, I found that the NCBC article more thoroughly covered and answered all the relevant ethical questions on this topic. (Of course, you don't have to be Catholic to object to unethically derived vaccines)