"The argument above holds that the use of vaccines whose production involves the use of fetal cell lines does not create a situation of cooperation with abortion or complicity with the original abortions. This use is not, however, entirely unrelated to abortion, and the fact that using the vaccines is not cooperation in abortion does not settle the matter. The gravity of abortion might require us to make extensive efforts to avoid wherever possible association with abortion, abortion providers, and people who promote abortion in one manner or another. Donum vitae addresses this concern: The corpses of human embryos and fetuses, whether they have been deliberately aborted or not, must be respected just as the remains of other human beings. In particular, they cannot be subjected to mutilation or to autopsies if their death has not yet been verified and without the consent of the parents or of the mother. Furthermore, the moral requirements must be safeguarded, that there be no complicity in deliberate abortion and that the risk of scandal be avoided. Also, in the case of dead fetuses, as for the corpses of adult persons, all commercial trafficking must be considered illicit and should be prohibited.38 This excludes “complicity in deliberate abortion,” and if being complicit means being an accomplice, it appears that avoiding complicity requires avoiding cooperation in or contributing to the performance of abortion. If it is true, as has been argued above, that the use of the vaccines in question cannot be understood to be a case of complicity in abortion, it would appear that there is no objection on the basis of this text. The matter is, however, not so simple. The Latin version of the pertinent sentence—translated above as “Furthermore, the moral requirements must be safeguarded, that there be no complicity in deliberate abortion and that the risk of scandal be avoided”—reads as follows: Praeterea, semper salva legis moralis praescriptio esse debet, quae excludit quamlibet cum abortu voluntario societatem et scandali periculum. Literally: “Furthermore, the prescription of the moral law ought always to be preserved, which excludes the danger of scandal and any association with voluntary abortion.” Now, excluding “any association” appears to be a stronger requirement than excluding complicity. An associate is more loosely related to some thing than is an accomplice. Still, societas is not a technical term, and it is necessary to determine what Donum vitae means by this wrongful association."
January 1, 1970