Page 75 - Fall2020

Vaccination Updates

USE OF ABORTED FETAL TISSUE IN VACCINES
By Kendall Nelson, Director, The Greater Good

Up until the first half of the twentieth cen- bone cancer and 60 percent of those with meso- These
3
tury, most vaccines were developed by growing thelioma. By 2001, sixty-two papers from thirty aborted
4
pathogens in live animals or by using animal laboratories around the world had reported SV40
cells. Today however several common vaccines in human tissues and tumors, including pituitary fetuses
are made by cultivating viruses in aborted hu- and thyroid cancers. Despite these and similar provided for
2
man fetal fibroblast cells. Many people find this findings, the Centers for Disease Control and two primary
method abhorrent. In their view, the practice Prevention (CDC) persists in its claim that there
goes against the sanctity of human life. In ad- is no validity to the science correlating vaccines, cell cultures
dition, others—including well-regarded doctors SV40 and human cancers. that have
5
and scientists who may not perceive an ethical since been
problem—claim that the use of aborted fetal THE RISE OF FETAL CELL CULTURES
tissue in vaccines poses extreme health risks The fetal embryo fibroblast cells used to used to
and is a likely factor in the skyrocketing autism grow vaccine viruses were first obtained from prepare
epidemic. the elective termination of two pregnancies in hundreds
Unlike bacteria, which can be grown in the 1960s. These aborted fetuses provided for
simple laboratory cultures, what scientists call two primary cell cultures that have since been of millions
viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They used to prepare hundreds of millions of doses of doses of
require a living host in which to grow. Manu- of vaccines. vaccines.
facturers prefer human cells to animal cells for The first diploid human cell line, WI-38,
propagating viruses, citing both manufacturing originated in the United States in 1962. Leonard
and safety concerns. For example, pathogens Hayflick, an American anatomist, isolated and
such as varicella (chickenpox) do not grow well developed this cell line from the lung cells of a
in most cells derived from species other than healthy twelve-week-old aborted female fetus.
6
humans. In addition, animals are costly, require The initials WI are a reference to the University
extensive monitoring and can become scarce. of Pennsylvania’s Wistar Institute, and the num-
Finally, although the animal technique is still ber 38 refers to the specific fetus in question.
used for some viruses, scientists acknowledge The Wistar Institute recruited Hayflick in 1958
that cells derived from animals pose the risk to run its cell-culture laboratory. The Institute
7
of carrying unwanted bacteria or viruses that still bills itself as a “global leader” in vaccine
can contaminate vaccines and be harmful to development. 8
humans. The second primary diploid human cell
1
Consider the polio vaccines administered to line, called MRC-5, was developed by J.P. Ja-
millions of people from 1955 through 1963. As cobs and colleagues in 1966, using Hayflick’s
9
a direct result of their manufacture with rhesus technology. MCR-5 was derived from the lung
monkey kidney cells, the vaccines eventually cells of a healthy fourteen-week-old aborted
were discovered to be contaminated with a male human fetus. The initials MRC refer to the
monkey virus called simian virus 40 (SV40). Medical Research Council in London, England.
1
Subsequent research connected SV40 to cancer Later, Dutch molecular biologist Alex van
in humans, including brain tumors, bone can- der Eb at Leiden University and colleagues
cers, lung cancers and leukemia. In the 1990s, a developed two other human cell lines used in
2
molecular pathologist at Loyola Medical Center vaccine production: HEK-293, generated in
detected SV40 in 33 percent of patients with 1973 from aborted human embryonic kidney

FALL 2020 Wise Traditions 73