Ethical concerns regarding vaccines and their use of cell lines in the design, production, and testing of vaccines may lead one to abstain from vaccines due to sincerely held pro-life beliefs. Those who abstain are courageous souls willing to lay down their lives to stand by their morals. Unfortunately, there is a vast amount of misinformation about the sourcing of cell line HEK 293. The good news is that Pro-Life Approved has compiled research to relieve pro-life concerns. The following is the evidence that HEK 293 death was from a miscarriage or to save the mother's life.
What is HEK 293?
HEK 293 is a human embryonic kidney cell transformed with adenovirus and grown in tissue culture (American Type Culture Collection, 2021). The origins of the HEK 293 cell lines were from a fetus in the Netherlands, approximately around 1973.
Was abortion illegal?
Over the years, many assumed that HEK 293 derived from a medically unnecessary abortion. However, that cannot be the case. The primary reason is because abortion was illegal in the Netherlands due to the Morality Acts of 1911. Legally, doctors could only perform an abortion if the mother's life was in peril. Otherwise, the practice was strictly prohibited (Abortion in the Netherlands, 2021).
Abortion or Miscarriage?
The medical definition of a miscarriage is spontaneous abortion. (Rapp & Alves, 2021) Spontaneous abortion is a well-known term within the medical community. However, the public often misuses this phrase. Unfortunately, viable fetuses perish regularly due to natural causes. The term spontaneous abortion has been used interchangeably with the term abortion. The aforementioned has confused members of the pro-life community. We hope to bring clarification to this misunderstanding.
Why can't we save the baby?
The other situation to be analyzed is the ethics of a woman who needs an abortion to save her life. One may state, "Abortion is never needed, even if it is to save the life of a mother." However, this is a denial of the medical facts. Let us consider the life of the fetus in this dilemma. If the fetus was viable, a cesarean section could save their lives. In this situation, the mother's life would not have been in danger. Therefore, abortion would have been illegal at the time of HEK 293's passing. If the fetus were not viable, then the mother's loss of life would have terminated the fetus's life. So, there is no practical way to save the fetus's life in these cases. This situation renders the HEK 293 cells compared to a traditional organ donor. Please note, however, that while the HEK 293 cells are akin to donating one's organs post postmortem to science, there are no HEK 293 cells in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
What Vaccines are Pro-Life Approved?
Moderna's vaccine and Pfizer's Commnity vaccines; both meet Pro-Life Approved standards for ethical vaccines. In addition to those vaccines, the Inovio and Novavax vaccine are also Pro-Life Approved. We cannot recommend the Johnson and Johnson's, Janssen, COVID-19 vaccine, since Johnson and Johnson used the PER C6 cells line in its production. In the case of cell line PERC6, we have yet to rule out the use of elective abortion. When getting vaccinated, have a clear conscience, and be thankful for HEK 293's brief yet impactful life. Her contributions have been certainly world-changing.
References
Abortion in the Netherlands. (2021, November 01). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
American Type Culture Collection. (2021, 05 19). Retrieved from American Type
Culture Colection:
https://www.atcc.org/: https://www.atcc.org/api/pdf/product-sheet?id=CRL-1573
Rapp, A., & Alves, C. (2021). Spontaneous Abortion. PubMed, 1. Retrieved from