>> Hi, my name is Paul Offit.
I'm talking to you today from the Vaccine
Education Center at the Children's Hospital
of Philadelphia.
And one issue, and it tends to be a little contentious,
is "Are fetal cells used to make vaccines?"
The answer's, yes.
There were two elective abortions that were
performed in the early 1960s,
one in Sweden, one in England.
Those cells that were obtained from those
elective abortions have been used to make
several vaccines.
They've been used to make the hepatitis A
vaccine, the chickenpox vaccine, the rubella,
or German measles vaccine, one of the rabies
vaccines.
It's the same cells that were obtained
in the early 1960s, so no new therapeutic or
elective abortions have been performed since
then for the purpose of making vaccines.
But the answer to the question, "Is there a
residual or very small, small, small quantities
of trace DNA from those original abortions
in the vaccines that I just mentioned?"
The answer is yes.
Now, the Catholic Church, through the Pontifical
Academy of Life have weighed in on this issue
because obviously for the Catholic Church,
abortion is a sin, a sin worthy of excommunication,
a sin that causes one to lose, frankly, the
ability to participate in the sacraments of
the church or Catholic life.
So, I think Catholics have reasonably asked
the question, "Can we get these vaccines?"
And the Pontifical Academy of Life, at the
timed headed by Joseph Ratzinger who became
Pope Benedict XVI, has ruled that "yes" it
is OK to get it.
In fact it's important to get these vaccines
because vaccines save lives; vaccines prevent
suffering; vaccines prevent hospitalization
and occasionally death.
And the Catholic Church, like any major religion,
cares deeply about the health and well-being
of children.
Thank you.
