Pro-lifers work to get word out about unethical vaccines

More than 80 abortions were performed in the creation of the most widely used rubella vaccines.

Tissue from aborted fetuses also contributed to development of vaccines routinely used in immunizations for measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, polio, hepatitis A & B and other diseases. Some vaccines based on nonhuman sources are widely available, but they have either been withdrawn from the market, or families aren’t told they have an alternative.

This means that some parents who are OK with immunizing their children now face a dilemma if they’re pro-life. They feel that by using the vaccines, they would be participating in evil by benefiting from abortion.

But help is here and more is coming.

A group called Children of God for Life, for instance, publishes a chart of ethical versions of vaccines that parents can use if they feel compelled to seek alternatives for their family.

Debi Vinnedge, the founder of the 13-year-old CGL who calls herself “one mad, pro-life mom,” says she mainly wants to get information about immoral vaccines out, “something that is a big help to parents and to doctors.”

Besides releasing that information herself, Vinnedge is also trying to get someone in Congress to introduce a bill that would require vaccine manufacturers to label products that have come from any aborted fetal tissue lines.

“If I can know what the fat content is on a package of cookies, why not on my medicine?” she says.

But so far, Vinnedge hasn’t been able to find a sponsor.

A biotech firm working toward providing more alternatives to fetal cell line vaccines has Vinnedge excited, though. The year-old, Seattle-based AVM Biotechnology was founded by pro-lifer Theresa Deisher to educate parents and doctors as well as work on developing or bringing to market ethical vaccines. Deisher has 17 years of experience in adult stem cell therapies and regenerative medicine. She says she started AVM and its nonprofit foundation, Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute, after watching the growing use of aborted fetal material in the commercial biotech industry.

“If you think about it, it’s very clever, and I have had people use the word ‘diabolical,’ what’s been done,” Deisher says. “By taking this material, by cannibalizing these babies and using their tissue to produce our drugs, the result is that we have human DNA contaminant from those aborted babies in our medicine—right now predominantly vaccines, but it’s moving into other medicines beyond vaccines—that we inject into our innocent children. Isn’t that just clever that we are all forced—most people unknowingly —to participate in this because we have mandated vaccination programs?”

AVM’s first order of business, Deisher says, is to work with ethical vaccines that have already been made and get them in the market. For instance, she says that Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies, recently canceled production of one of its mumps and measles vaccines, both of which were made using animal cells. Merck wasn’t making a lot of money on those vaccines. AVM doesn’t have the same commercial and infrastructure constraints.

“We would like to be able to manufacture and distribute those vaccines to those people who object to use of aborted fetal cells,” Deisher says.

Another goal is to create vaccines for immunizations where nonabortive lines are not available, first for childhood vaccines.

“Vaccinations are in general a very good thing, so we don’t want to suggest that we not vaccinate our children,” she says. “What we want is to provide our children with vaccines that are morally made and safe.”

A third effort will be to develop a process through Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute that would result in certification of vaccines as being from a nonfetal line—kind of a kosher label for immunizations.

But what should parents do until then, especially if ethical versions aren’t available?

“I cannot give medical advice to anyone,” she says. “I believe those parents have to follow their conscience. For some parents, that may be a decision to abstain from those vaccines. For other parents, that may be a decision that they have to use those vaccines. For all of those parents, I would say, ‘You have an obligation, whether you abstain or you use them, to make your objections known and to demand alternatives, to educate your pediatrician, educate your pharmacist, educate your friends and family.’”

Children of God for Life’s Vinnedge also encourages parents to request the moral alternatives.

“We believe if the people knew, there would be a lot higher demand” for the alternatives, she says.

This article originally ran in the April 2009 edition of the Samaritan Ministries Christian Health Care Newsletter.