Bishop urges pro-lifers to ask for ethically sound vaccines

Thus my reading of [Dignitas Personae] inclines me to conclude that parents may use these vaccines derived from cell lines of illicit origin but they should inquire about the availability of a more ethical alternative and they must make their objections known to the physician, to the healthcare system and to the FDA. Clearly, the use of these vaccines, while morally permissible, is not entirely morally neutral.

I am personally very troubled by the abortion connection even though it is deemed quite remote in the moral analysis. My problem is this: Evil may never be done in order that good might come from it. Yet, evil is done, and not just any evil but the evil of deliberate murder in abortion, with the precise intention of producing a medical good. We strongly reject the evil but, either directly or at least indirectly, we reward and even encourage the evil-doers by our wholesale acceptance of the good they have produced....

I have seen people with shingles and this disease is not at all pleasant. Yet, for me, the choice between accepting the risk of getting shingles and using a vaccine derived from a cell line of illicit origin is easy. I would rather accept shingles and its consequences than send the message that I would knowingly use a vaccine derived from a cell line of illicit origin.  In reality, if everyone did this then one of two things would happen. The pharmaceutical companies would stop making the vaccine or they would begin to look seriously for alternatives that are not tied to abortion. Without our protest, however, these companies have no incentive to change their ways. They will continue to do evil that good may come from it; we will continue to receive the good they produce, and we will thus give moral and financial support to their heinous practices.

In other words, you may use the vaccine to protect yourself and your children if you so wish, but make your objections heard!  Tell everyone that will listen that you want an ethical alternative to vaccines made from unethical cell lines.