COVID Vaccine – Making an informed decision for your family

We’re being asked on a regular basis – what’s Family First’s view of the COVID-19 vaccine?

Here’s some of the important questions that we know you may be asking:

• Is it true that the new COVID vaccines have not undergone normal safety testing procedures?
• Is it true that the new COVID vaccines contain tissues from an aborted foetus?
• Should we accept a vaccine that is ‘morally tainted’?
• Is being pro-vaccine incompatible with being pro-life?
• Is it true that the risks of coronavirus infection have been massively exaggerated for political or other devious reasons?
• Is it true that Western democratic governments are planning to make coronavirus vaccination compulsory?
• Any other conspiracy theories that I should be aware of?

To be blunt, we are not medical experts! But we do monitor the advice of credible medical specialists, infectious disease specialists, bioethicists, scientific researchers and Christian ethicists, and our partner organisations around the world who are sharing the views of these professionals.

So in an attempt to help kiwi families make an informed decision, we offer a list of articles worth reading.

Family First NZ is not telling you whether to take or not take the vaccine – it’s a matter of individual conscience. There are genuine and legitimate concerns on both sides of the debate, and we should accept and respect the conscientious decisions made by others.

We have gathered articles recommended by Christian Concern and International Christian Medical and Dental Association based in the UK; Focus on the Family, Charlotte Lozier Institute and the Family Research Council based in the US, and have sought the opinions of our own medical advisers to Family First.

But it is vital that families make their decision with full knowledge of the facts and arguments.

CHRISTIAN CONCERN (UK)
Source: Vaccines – safety, ethics and the bigger picture

Are the vaccines dangerous?

“By and large, Christian medical experts – many of whom have stood against the tide on contentious issues like abortion and euthanasia – agree with the scientific consensus that the vaccines are fundamentally safe and that the risks of COVID-19 are considerably greater than the vaccine.”

(But they do acknowledge the concern that these vaccines have been developed very quickly – but that is partly due to the urgency amongst the world’s scientific community who are working together, and also the significant financial investment to develop a vaccine to stop this pandemic.)

• Professor John Wyatt, doctor, author, speaker and researcher: Coronavirus vaccines Frequently Asked Questions
• Dr John Ling, bioethical consultant and co-founder of Evangelicals for LIFE: Coronavirus vaccines – history, logistics, questions and conspiracies (recommended by International Christian Medical and Dental Association)
• Dr Robert Carter, speaker and senior scientist at Creation Ministries International: RNA Vaccines
• Dr Jonathan Sarfati, creationist physical chemist and spectroscopist at Creation Ministries International: CMI, vaccines, and vaccination

 Are the vaccines moral?

“As well as safety concerns, questions are raised about the use of cells deriving from an abortion nearly fifty years ago. These are called HEK 293 cells, which have been used in production and/or testing of all of the COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK. Use of these cell lines is not new – many previous vaccines and even medications have used these or similar cells in their production or testing…. The majority of Christian medics and ethicists lean towards accepting the vaccine. But there are faithful, informed Christians who believe that taking the vaccine wrongly benefits from past evil, participates in evil now, or encourages further evil through more abortion and experimentation. Their views are well worth considering.”

More favourable to vaccines

• Professor John Wyatt: Coronavirus vaccines and Christian ethics
• Dr John Ling, bioethical consultant and co-founder of Evangelicals for LIFE: Coronavirus – Part 2
• Dr Adrian Warnock, medical doctor, psychiatrist and clinical researcher: Are Covid-19 vaccines made from aborted babies? What is HEK293?
• Christian Medical Fellowship Blog (guest writer): The COVID vaccine: Christians in crisis or clear conscience?
• Dr Jonathan Sarfati: CMI, vaccines, and vaccination
• John Stevens, National Director of FIEC: Is being pro-vaccine incompatible with being pro-life?
• Matthew Mason, tutor in Christian ethics at Pastors’ Academy: Can Christians get a Covid vaccine?

Mostly neutral

• Helen Watt, Senior Research Fellow at the Anscombe Bioethics Centre: COVID-19 Vaccines and Use of Foetal Cell-lines

Less favourable to these vaccines

• John Piper, of Desiring God Ministries: Can I Take a Vaccine Made from Aborted Babies?
• Dave Brennan, of Brephos UK:
  • My Response to the EA’s Webinar on the Ethics of Covid-19 Vaccines Part 1
  • My Response to the EA’s Webinar on the Ethics of Covid-19 Vaccines Part 2
  • My Response to the EA’s Webinar on the Ethics of Covid-19 Vaccines Part 3
  • My Response to the EA’s Webinar on the Ethics of Covid-19 Vaccines Part 4

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
COVID-19 Vaccines: What You Need to Know

FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL
COVID Vaccine: A Promising Start, But Freedom Must Be Paramount

CHARLOTTE LOZIER INSTITUTE
What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccines

Cardinal John Dew: New Zealand Catholic Bishops
Covid-19 vaccine is a moral duty

Vatican Report
Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines (Dec 2020)

The Vatican Report correctly identifies a key issue: “Both pharmaceutical companies and governmental health agencies are therefore encouraged to produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create problems of conscience for either health care providers or the people to be vaccinated.”

An example of this was the Trump Administration’s excellent policy that they would no longer conduct internal research using tissue from aborted babies and would greatly increase the ethics rules and safeguards that govern external fetal tissue research contracts.

Final thoughts

As Christian Concern in the UK argues, those who support taking the vaccine “ought not to trample on the consciences of those who believe that it is morally wrong. It is one thing to seek to persuade – it is another to act in judgement.”

We trust that these articles will assist in your decision making process on this significant issue.