A Christian Doctor Reflects on Vaccines Grown in Fetal Cell Strains

My patients — and many friends — have asked me about the use of fetal cell strains in vaccines. I welcome these questions. They know I am a Christian and am deeply opposed to voluntary abortion.

First — the bottom line. For those who want to cut to the chase, here it is: If you are offered a vaccine — any vaccine — to protect you from Covid, take it. Vaccines are the way out of this pandemic, and we are almost there. The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer people the virus can infect.

And now, for the details: I have been an enthusiastic supporter of vaccines for my entire career as a family physician. To me it seems blatantly obvious that preventing a disease is far better than treating a sick person. The problem comes when vaccines so successfully prevent diseases that people forget the danger. During the first year of my residency, in 1986, I took care of three severely ill infants hospitalized with Haemophilus Influenza type b infection, one of which had meningitis which led to brain damage and permanent deafness. I often wonder how he has done since then. Halfway through my residency, the Hib vaccine came out, and within a year no kids were being admitted to my hospital for this dread infection. None.

Having said this, I have heard some people say, “There are effective medications to treat Covid, so why get a vaccine?” This makes no sense to me. For one thing, the medications usually cited have modest benefit, if any at all. And getting Covid means potentially spreading it to a more vulnerable person or having a severe case yourself. And sadly there is a very real possibility of living with lingering symptoms for weeks or months, or perhaps forever — headaches, muscle aches, fatigue, brain fog. This is a nasty virus.

I have previously written about the mRNA vaccines, made by Pfizer and Moderna. https://amygivler.medium.com/vaccine-thoughts-of-a-christian-doctor-what-i-tell-my-patients-cb1df3326ac5 . Now the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has received an EUA from the FDA and is being distributed. This is a different type of vaccine.

For one thing, the J&J vaccine is a single shot, which is a huge advantage. It looks like it is very effective, with 72% efficacy against symptomatic Covid in the U.S., and 66% efficacy in other countries where the new variants are common. Those variants have slight changes that sometimes evade the antibodies made by the vaccine. It looks like it is 85–90% effective at preventing severe disease, which is what we all really want it to do. And the trial showed 100% efficacy at preventing hospitalization and death. Major success.

How does it do it? It triggers our own bodies to produce an immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The spike protein is what the virus uses to enter our cells. If we activate an immune response to the spike protein, then the virus can’t establish an infection. This is the beauty of vaccines. Our bodies respond to an inert, harmless spike protein and protect us because our immune systems have been activated.

Here is a nice graphic from a medical journal on how the vaccine works: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777172. The adenovirus that carries the code for the spike protein is not able to reproduce inside us, and, importantly, it is not a virus that causes illness in humans. There are millions of different viruses in the world, only an infinitesimally small fraction of which cause illness in humans.

So why did I mention abortion in the beginning? Because the adenovirus that is the vector in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had to be grown in cells. And the cells that they used first came from an abortion in 1985. That abortion was not done for the purpose of science. It was a voluntary abortion. And, in my opinion, it was wrong.

After the cells were taken, they were “immortalized” so they divide and divide and divide. In other words, none of the original cells that came from the baby still exist, and no additional abortions are done to keep this cell strain going. It goes on by itself, as long as it is given nutrients, and scientists use it to grow other things, such as the adenoviruses of this vaccine. The vaccine itself contains none of these cells — before getting put into the vial, the adenovirus is separated completely from the cells in which it grew.

Do I wish Johnson & Johnson had not used this cell strain to grow the adenovirus used for their vaccine? Yes, I do.

Do I wish no scientific research of any kind was ever done using any fetal cell strain? Yes, I wish this very much.

Am I okay with people getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? The answer to this is also yes. The reason?

This vaccine doesn’t directly involve any abortion. The abortion, which was a great wrong, happened 36 years ago. Nothing we do today can change what happened. We cannot be morally complicit with an action that happened in the past. No further babies have died, or will die, to keep this cell strain going. Thus the connection with abortion is very remote, and separated by a great deal of time. Taking the vaccine does not perpetuate the evil of abortion, nor does it mean the person getting the vaccine is approving of the past evil.

Furthermore, using these cells does not put any more babies at risk of dying. Taking the vaccine does not create demand for more aborted fetal tissue.

Could it actually be considered a good thing, even a duty, to take a vaccine which was grown in a fetal cell line? In the context of a worldwide pandemic that is causing much death and suffering, the answer is yes. There is not only a private benefit — not getting sick — but a public benefit — not perpetuating the illness. We Christians are to seek the common good of our communities, and widespread vaccination will lead to herd immunity, and that will be a very good thing, indeed. With herd immunity we will be limiting illness and death and thus our community’s economic and social life can be restored.

The advantages of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are obvious — one shot means people can be protected quickly and easily. Also, the storage requirements are much less onerous than the mRNA vaccines. The reactogenicity of the vaccine itself (sore arm, fatigue, muscle aches, etc.) also seems to be less, though time will tell about that.

I am not alone in coming to the conclusion that using a vaccine made in a fetal cell strain is morally permissible. Many thoughtful Christians who understand medicine and science and ethics have come to a similar conclusion. In fact, I have leaned heavily on the writings and speakings of others — for many years — to think this issue through. I wrote about it several years ago: (https://cmda.org/article/am-i-my-brothers-keeper/ ) and here are two more articles that carefully define the issues:

1. https://cmda.org/article/vaccination-information-and-recommendations/

2. https://cmda.org/article/is-vaccination-complicit-with-abortion/

Also two recent podcasts discuss this issue:

1. https://albertmohler.com/2021/03/03/briefing-3-3-21

2. https://cmda.org/cmda-podcasts/countering-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation/

I know I am giving you lots of reading and listening material, but I trust that you want to understand this issue, weigh all the facts, and make a decision about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, if it is offered to you. I also want you to be able to counter some blatantly false statements, such as “this vaccine is full of chopped up babies,” which I have, alas, heard.

Some of the nastiest things ever said to me have come in the context of discussing this issue. I guess emotions run pretty high, but, still, it is hard to be called ugly names, and to be told I am not a Christian, by another (presumably) Christian. Still, I refuse to be browbeaten into silence when so many lives are at stake.

I welcome questions and discussion, but not name-calling and venomous accusations. I am quite sympathetic to someone whose conscience is troubled at the thought of receiving a vaccine that has used a fetal cell strain. For those people, they should seek out one of the two mRNA vaccines, if possible. I think Christians need to know, however, that this issue is not something every thoughtful Christian has a troubled conscience about.

All life-affirming Christians can agree that no more fetal cell strains should be developed. I wish every Christian — especially those who feel strongly about this — would lobby vaccine manufacturers to urge them to use other cell strains when one is needed. Most vaccines don’t need any cell strain at all, of course, and the few that do could use one of the many cell strains that came from animals or insects.

When anyone asks me which vaccine is “best,” I always say, “Whichever one you are offered.” The sooner we can all get vaccinated, the sooner it will be that we get back to community life, school, and, most importantly, church.