An Orthodox MD Tries to Work Out the Bioethical Kinks of the Covid-19 Vaccine

Public acceptance and uptake of Covid-19 vaccines is determined by many factors. One reason many people hesitate to take a Covid-19 vaccine is the bioethical issue surrounding the use of aborted fetal cell lines for the research, development, production, manufacturing and/or testing of these vaccine

In January of this year, Orthodox Reflections published a comparative chart which summarizes how each Covid-19 vaccine and vaccine candidate are developed, manufactured and tested and the role of aborted fetal cells in that process. According to this source, both Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines are designed, developed, produced and tested utilizing aborted fetal cell lines; but the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are designed and developed through computer sequencing, and are not produced or manufactured with aborted fetal cells, although some batches are tested on aborted fetal cells while other batches are tested on certain proteins.

Pfizer claims that animal or human cell lines are not used in the manufacturing process of their Covid-19 vaccine. Additionally, their definition of “human” may not include “fetal”, since abortion laws which legalize abortions do not recognize fetuses as human.

Another Orthodox website claims that all four vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson utilize fetal cell lines – Pfizer and Moderna in their research, development and testing; and A-Z and J&J in their research and development. I did some further digging by checking the references of this article and ended up here – which was a Moderna eye opener. Fetal cells are used to develop and manufacture this vaccine, as well as to test it.  In some of their papers, Moderna does not refer to the fetal cell line as HEK-293 but as Expi293F cells. Their use of fetal cells is embedded in their articles and can be difficult to find.

This website also leads to a PDF chart where one can examine a large number of vaccines, including Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine which can be found here. According to this patent, K562 human cells are used, which are derived from chronic myeloid leukemia (see example 2 towards the end). These cells are harvested from patients who have this disease and NOT from aborted fetuses. This type of harvesting does not harm the patients. Some batches of this vaccine are then tested on aborted fetal cells which are not present in the final product, and which do not appear to have been used in the research, design, development or manufacturing of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. However, in the second hyperlink above, Pfizer claims that animal or human cell lines are not used in the manufacturing process.

This information appears to be inconsistent with the information in their patent, but it is possible that Pfizer is drawing a distinction between “development” and “manufacturing.” I also have no evidence that preliminary research that led to the development of the Pfizer vaccine, did not use fetal cell lines, because experts have been telling us that mRNA research was being done for about ten years prior to the appearance of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines. It is unclear if any of this preliminary mRNA research used aborted fetal cell lines.

Besides scientists, lawyers are also extensively involved in any pharmaceutical process, and they play a role in the terminology used. Based on legal definitions, they may have drawn a distinction between “human” and “fetal,” between “design”, “development”, “production” and “manufacturing”, and they may even have defined “research” in such a way that it would exclude any prior research done by other labs. These other labs may have used aborted fetal cell lines in their research, which may have in-directly led to the development of another independent pharmaceutical company’s drug or vaccine. An independent pharmaceutical company itself, may not have used any aborted fetal cell lines but may have benefited by prior research in other labs that did use them. Clarification in this area is beyond the scope of capability of someone like myself, but having greater confidence and clearer, more consistent language around the origins of the Covid-19 vaccines may reduce the hesitation that many feel when considering a Covid-19 vaccine.

In summary, I have found evidence that the Moderna, Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have used aborted fetal cell lines in their development. I have not found the same type of evidence for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, but I cannot exclude that fetal cell line usage did not predate the development of the Pfizer vaccine in an in-direct manner. Based on my findings, the Pfizer vaccine may be the least unethical of the four vaccines described here – to those who deem the use of aborted fetal cell lines to be unethical.

Known Role of Aborted Fetal Cell Lines in Some Covid-19 Vaccines

Irene Polidoulis MD CCFP FCFP


Please visit our Vaccine Informed Consent page for more information.

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