A GROUP representing Irish bishops has told Catholic followers that availing of the Covid-19 is OK, even if uses foetal cell lines.
The Irish Catholic Bishops Conference said that the Church recognises that safe and effective vaccines are "an essential aspect" of preventing diseases, and that the refusal to accept a Covid-19 vaccine "could contribute to significant loss of life in the community".
There are referring to the fact that in some vaccines, genetic material from aborted foetuses is used to start 'cell lines' during the vaccine's development.
Despite the Church's stance that "abortion is always gravely immoral" the bishops group said this week that "if a more ethically alternative" is not available for Catholics, then it is "morally permissible" for them to accept vaccines using foetal tissue.
Most Covid-19 vaccines do not use foetal tissue in their production.
Neither the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, which is being rolled out across the UK at the moment, nor the Moderna vaccine use foetal tissue, and Ireland has deals in place to receive doses from both companies.
The Oxford-AtsraZeneca vaccine does however use human-derived cells in development, but the cells are filtered out of the final vaccine product.
"The Church has always made a distinction ... between formal (deliberate) involvement in an immoral act and material involvement, which may be incidental and remote," the bishop group added.
"The decision of those who decide to accept vaccines which have had some link with foetal cell lines in the past does not imply consent on their part to abortion.
"Catholics should continue to advocate for the availability of ethically-developed vaccines."
