PONTIFICIA ACADEMIA PRO VITA
Il Presidente
Prot.n.P/3431
Vatican City,
June 9 2005
Mrs Debra L.Vinnedge
Executive Director, Children of God for Life
943 Deville Drive East
Largo, Florida
33771
Stati Uniti
Dear Mrs Debra L.Vinnedge,
On June 4, 2003, you wrote to His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, with a copy of this letter forwarded to me, asking to the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith a clarification about the liceity of vaccinating children with vaccines prepared using cell lines derived from aborted human fetuses. Your question regarded in particular the right of the parents of these children to oppose such a vaccination when made at school, mandated by law. As there were no formal guidelines by the magisterium concerning that topic, you said that catholic parents were often challenged by State Courts, Health Officials and School Administrators when they filled religious exemptions for their children to this type of vaccination
This Pontifical Academy for Life, carrying out the commission entrusted to us by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in answer to your request, has proceeded to a careful examination of the question of these “tainted” vaccines, and has produced as a result a study (in Italian) that has been realized with the help of a group of experts. This study has been approved as such by the Congregation and we send you, there enclosed, an English translation of a synthesis of this study. This synthesis can be brought to the knowledge of the interested officials and organisms.
A documented paper on the topic will be published in the journal “Medicina e Morale”, edited by the Centra di Bioetica della Universita Cattolica in Rome.
The study, its synthesis, and the translation of this material took some time. We apologize for the delay.
With my best regards,
Sincerely yours,
+E.Sgreccia
00193 Roma – Via della Conciliazione, 1 – Tel. 06 698.82423 – 06 698.81693 – Fax 06 698.82014
See Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses