9th May 2020

Hon Dr David Clark

Minister of Health,

Dear Minister,

I believe that the government has a moral obligation to refuse to fund research or purchase morally contentious vaccines to fight Coronavirus and other threats to life and health that have been derived from cell lines of children who have been killed in abortion.

There are many in our community who are deeply opposed to the use of cell lines that have been developed from the tissue of babies who have been murdered in abortion. The government has a duty to offer to the community vaccines that will not violate the conscience of those who are opposed to the killing of the innocent. We should not have to accept vaccines from aborted cell lines when other more morally acceptable alternatives exist.

Vaccines derived from cell lines of aborted babies contain the complete DNA of the aborted baby that has not given consent for the use of its tissue for unethical research.

Right to Life notes for moral guidance that the Congregation for the Faith in Rome issued an instruction, Dignitas Personae in 2008. “The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death. This fundamental principle expresses a great “yes” to human life and must be at the centre of ethical reflection on biomedical research, which has an ever greater importance in today’s world.”

Vaccines are developed on the cultures of human tissue of babies killed before birth, precisely because they are human. It would be hypocritical of the government to purchase these vaccines when it has just recently rushed through Parliament the anti-life Abortion Legislation Act on the pretext that the unborn child is not a human being. Is the government now prepared to concede that the unborn child is a human being and that its tissue can be used to develop vaccines?

There are two main aborted cell lines developed in 1964 and 1970 from healthy aborted children killed in the second trimester that are used to produce vaccines. There were hundreds of unborn babies killed before these cell lines were perfected. New cell lines continue to be developed from the human remains of babies killed before birth.

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur is hoping to have a morally acceptable vaccine ready for human testing later this year. Two American companies, Johnson & Johnson and Maderna expect to commence human testing, the former in July and the latter in September 2020. Both of these companies are using unethical aborted cell lines. The government should not purchase unethically produced vaccines from these companies.

“Governments should seek to fund research on, and purchase, morally uncontentious vaccines, both to reward morally uncontentious research and to provide more citizens with vaccines they can in conscience accept, with full background information. Internationally, there are many vaccines that have been developed using aborted baby cell lines, it is very much to be hoped that morally uncontentious vaccines will be made widely available to all peoples of the world, both to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and to combat other threats to life and health,

I understand that the Malaghan Institute in Dunedin has sought government funding to produce a vaccine to fight Coronavirus. I believe that they will be using a cell line to produce this vaccine, however, it has not been possible to ascertain if it will be using an unethical cell line to develop the vaccine.

I would be grateful if you would advise me, whether the government has provided any funding to the Malaghan Institute or any other pharmaceutical company to research a vaccine to combat Coronavirus.

Are you committed to opposing firstly, funding research and secondly purchasing vaccine that uses unethically obtained aborted human tissue?

Yours sincerely,

Ken Orr

Secretary,

Right to Life