F&P Episode: 26 – Bioethics and COVID-19 Vaccine Development

Published by wpadmin on


On this episode, Chris is joined by Greg Schleppenbach, associate director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the USCCB, to discuss Catholic teaching on the ethical production and use of vaccines developed using aborted fetal cell lines.  While several ethically-concerning COVID vaccines are being developed, there are also numerous ethically-sound projects, including several receiving significant financial backing from the federal government.

As referenced in the interview, see this April 17, 2020 letter co-signed by several bishop-chairs of USCCB committees to the Food & Drug Administration; this 2005 Vatican document Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses; and the Charlotte Lozier Institute’s chart tracking and ethically assessing COVID-19 vaccine development.

Categories: Faith & Politics

Related Posts

Faith & Politics

F&P Episode 115: South Dakota’s Pivotal Moment on Abortion

South Dakota’s 2023 legislative session marked the first time that state lawmakers had gathered since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its June 24, 2022 decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and restored to the states the ability to set their own public policy on abortion. Host Michael Pauley is joined by Dale Bartscher, the Executive Director of South Dakota Right to Life, for a discussion on how state lawmakers responded to the Dobbs decision, and how South Dakota’s pro-life community is responding to a citizen-initiated amendment that proposes to create an unlimited right to abortion in the state constitution.

Faith & Politics

F&P Episode 114: Obscenity and the First Amendment

During the 2023 legislative session, South Dakota lawmakers introduced five different bills that sought to regulate the spread of obscenity, especially by limiting the access of minors to harmful materials. Despite a growing public awareness of the harms caused by obscene material and programs, not one of the anti-obscenity bills made it through the legislature. Michael Pauley is joined by Norman Woods of the South Dakota Family Heritage Alliance to discuss the debate surrounding obscenity laws, the role of the courts and their interpretation of the First Amendment, and the surprising involvement of South Dakota’s public-school establishment in opposing anti-obscenity legislation.

Faith & Politics

F&P Episode 113: The abortion pill on trial

In the year 2000 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug mifepristone (also known as RU-486 or Mifeprex) as part of a regimen for chemically induced abortions. But on April 7, 2023—late on Good Friday—a federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction that suspended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, pending a trial on the merits of the case. The preliminary injunction was partially reversed on appeal, but the judge’s opinion in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA casts a spotlight on the damage that mifepristone has caused to women and their preborn children. Host Michael Pauley is joined by Adam Schwend of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America to discuss the implications of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case, regarded by many legal experts as the most important abortion-related litigation since the Dobbs decision.