Compulsory Vaccinations Threaten Religious Freedom

Liberty Counsel ^ | September 2001 | Mathew D. Staver

[Coleus]

  September 2001

COMPULSORY VACCINATIONS THREATEN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

by Mathew D. Staver

Most people associate vaccinations with the eradication of disease. Vaccinations have been a part of American life for decades. However, many people object to mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons. Oftentimes, these individuals are told that they have no choice and must receive the vaccinations.

You may be surprised to learn that some vaccinations are derived from aborted fetal tissue. Vaccines for chicken pox, Hepatitis-A and Rubella were produced solely from aborted fetal tissue. Even most physicians who oppose abortion do not realize that these three vaccines are made from aborted fetal tissue. Recently, the wife of one of our Liberty Counsel attorneys confronted her family doctor who wanted to inject her son with the chicken pox vaccine. When she told her doctor, who is Catholic, that the chicken pox vaccine contains aborted fetal tissue, he was surprised. The doctor was even more surprised when he skimmed through his medical book and found out she was right. He then proclaimed that he was faced with a dilemma which he must now confront.

In St. Louis County, Missouri, a county law required food handlers to obtain the Hepatitis-A vaccine for employment. Several prominent Catholic newspapers published articles on the morality of using the vaccine, and pointed out that the source of the vaccine was derived from abortion. After the information became public, more and more physicians and parents have become deeply troubled by the ethical issues involved in the Hepatitis-A vaccine.

During the Rubella epidemic of 1964, some doctors advised pregnant women who were exposed to the disease to abort their children. The resulting virus strain became known in the science world as RA/27/3. R stands for Rubella, A stands for Abortus, 27 stands for the 27^th fetus tested, and 3 stands for the 3^rd tissue explant. In other words, there were 26 abortions prior to finding the right "species" with the active virus. The Rubella vaccine was then cultivated from the 27^th aborted baby on the lung tissue of yet another aborted infant, WI-38. WI-38 (Wistar Institute 38) was taken from the lung tissue of an aborted baby at 3 months gestation in the 1960s. A second human cell line known as MRC-5 was derived from a male at 14 weeks gestation in the 1970s. These two aborted cell lines have been used to provide an ongoing source for many widely-used vaccines, including Hepatitis-A and chicken pox.

The chicken pox vaccine is known as Varivax. This vaccine was developed with the use of aborted fetuses. It uses both the human cell lines, known as WI-38 and MRC-5. The chicken pox vaccine also contains MSG (monosodium glutamate). According to the Food and Drug Administration, MSG is not advised for use in infants, children, or pregnant women or children of child-bearing age, and people with affective (mental/emotional) disorders. Dr. A. Lavin of the Department of Pediatrics at St. Luke's Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, strongly opposes the chicken pox vaccine.

Studies show that up to 3% of chicken pox vaccine recipients actually contract chicken pox from the vaccine, and some chicken pox cases may be contracted from recently vaccinated children. Some studies suggest that chicken pox in a vaccinated child may be milder than in an unvaccinated child. However, some experts also believe that this may be due to the vaccine suppressing the illness, which can actually signal a more serious underlying chronic condition. "Atypical measles" is a disease that occurs only in people previously vaccinated for measles, and it is far more serious than regular measles. It is yet unknown if "atypical chicken pox" cases will appear as a result of the use of Varivax.

The FDA has stated that there are fewer than 10% of serious adverse reactions and deaths following vaccines. The federal government actually pays families of vaccine-killed or disabled children nearly $100 million dollars each year, and has done so since 1986 through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

There are other vaccines that are derived from aborted fetuses for which there are alternatives. For example, an alternative to the Polio vaccine is a vaccine known by the name IPOL, which is not derived from aborted tissue. The alternative for Mumps is Mumpsvax, for rabies is RabAvert and for measles is Attenuvax. The vaccines under these names are produced either from monkey kidney cells or chicken embryos. There are also vaccine alternatives available in the United Kingdom, but which are not available in the United States because they are not FDA approved. The Rubella vaccine available in the United Kingdom known as Takahashi Strain and the Hepatitis-A vaccine with the brand name of Aimmugen are derived from rabbit and monkey kidney tissue respectively. However, these are not available in the United States.

In addition to the problem of some vaccines derived from aborted tissue, there is a larger problem with mandatory vaccines. Many people have a sincerely-held religious belief regarding vaccines in general. These individuals believe that God created the human body as a temple, and that the body should not be destroyed by injecting a virus into the body. Take for example Joseph and Heyde Rotella and Maja Leibovitz in New York City. Both families have a sincerely-held religious belief against vaccinations. At the time, the Rotellas had a seventh-grade daughter and Ms. Leibovitz had a second-grade daughter. The school system required that these children receive a mandatory Hepatitis-B vaccination. Hepatitis-B can only be transmitted in one of three ways. Either you are born to a mother with Hepatitis-B, or you contract it by drug use through the sharing of needles, or you contract it through sexual contact. Injecting their children with Hepatitis-B is like the state forcing the parents to give their children clean needles or condoms.

In both cases, the children were expelled from school, and in one case, Child Protective Services was called to the scene because the child was not in school. After several weeks of expulsion and threats of removing the children, Liberty Counsel filed a federal lawsuit. A court order allowed the children back in school and prohibited the school from overriding the parents' religious belief.

Liberty Counsel has also filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Arkansas. There the state requires mandatory vaccinations. Our clients have sincerely-held religious beliefs opposing these mandatory vaccinations, including the chicken pox vaccination. One of our clients has actually received a letter from the Vatican stating that the Church opposes abortion and it would be a sin for the parent to allow her child to be injected with aborted fetal tissue. Despite the strong evidence of a religious belief which opposes the chicken pox vaccination, the state of Arkansas insists that the parent vaccinate her child. Our federal lawsuit challenges the state's law on religious freedom grounds.

Vaccinations are becoming a wave of the future. Large pharmaceutical companies are lobbying state legislators to require mandatory vaccinations of all school-aged children. Some people have sincerely-held religious beliefs against vaccines in general, while others have objections to certain vaccines because of their aborted fetal contents. Either way, the state cannot steamroll a person's religious belief. In many cases, the government cannot even legitimately argue a compelling reason for the vaccines. Chicken pox is not life-threatening, and Hepatitis-B is primarily contracted through drug use and sexual contact. Moreover, Hepatitis-B, according to the Center for Disease Control, has several serious side effects, including Multiple Sclerosis.

Next time you are confronted with mandatory vaccines, take a moment to reexamine your religious beliefs and become educated about the contents, the purpose, and the risk of vaccinations.

U.S. Vaccines Derived From Abortion

Disease	Vaccine Name	Manufacturer	Cell line (Fetal)
Polio	Poliovax	Aventis-Pasteur	MRC-5
Measles, Mumps, Rubella Rubella only	MMR II Biavax II Meruvax II	Merck & Company	WI-38
Rabies	Imovax	Aventis-Pasteur	MRC-5
Hepatitis-A	Havrix Vaqta	SmithKline-Beecham Merck & Company	MRC-5 MRC-5
Chicken pox	Varivax	Merck & Company	WI-38 and MRC-5

 

U.S. Vaccine Alternatives

No alternatives for Chickenpox, Rubella or Hepatitis-A in U.S.

Disease	Vaccine Name	Manufacturer	Cell line
Polio	IPOL 800-822-2463	Aventis-Pasteur	Monkey kidney cells
Mumps	Mumpsvax 800-422-9675	Merck & Company	Chick embryo
Rabies	RabAvert 800-244-7668	Chiron Therapeutics	Chick embryo
Measles	Attenuvax 800-422-9675	Merck & Company	Chick embryo

[Sun]

I THINK that the Vatican said that if no other vaccines are available, that whatever is available can be used, until something ethical becomes available.

Does anyone know if this is true.

[Coleus]

And why is this in Personal and Bloggers? >>

It came from a webpage and not a news website.

[justche]

If there is a job that is open - and my skills fit that position - that is what matters.

[Senator Bedfellow]

To answer your first question: ...why do they use aborted fetal tissue anyway?

They don't. Fetal cells were used in developing the vaccines, forty-odd years ago. They are not used in manufacturing the vaccines today.

To answer the second:

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/gen/cathnews.htm

Different vaccine, same issue.

[justche]

Actually - they are still used in today's manufacturing -



Common vaccines and their production details
BIAVAX

Rubella and mumps virus vaccine live. Merck & Company, Inc.,
1-800-672-6372. Produced using neomycin, sorbitol, and hydrolyzed gelatin.
Medium: human diploid cells originating from human aborted fetal tissue.
DPT

Diphtheria and tetanus toxoids acellular pertussis vaccine adsorbed.
SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, 1-800-366-8900, extension 5231.
Produced using aluminum phosphate, formaldehyde, ammonium sulfate, washed
sheep red blood cells, glycerol, sodium chloride, and thimerosol.* Medium:
porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein.
FLUSHIELD

Influenza Virus Vaccine, Trivalent, Types A & B. Wyeth-Ayerst,
1-800-934-5556. Produced using gentamicin sulfate, formaldehyde,
po!ysorbate 80, tri(n) butylphosphate, and thimerosol.* Medium: chick
embryos.
FLU VIRIN

Influenza Virus Vaccine. Medeva Pharmaceuticals, 1 -888-MEDEVA (716-
274-5300). Produced using embroyonic fluid (chicken egg), neomycin,
polymyxin, thimerosol,* and betapropiolactone. Medium: embryonic fluid
(chicken egg).
HAVRIX

Hepatitis A. SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, 1-800-366-8900, extension
5231. Produced using formalin, aluminum hydroxide, phenoxyethanol
(antifreeze), polysorbate 20, and residual MRC5 proteins (from medium).
Medium: human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue).
IM0 VAX

Rabies Vaccine Adsorbed. Connaught Laboratories, 1-800-822-2463. Produced
using human albumin, neomycin sulfate, and phenol red indicator. Medium:
human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue).
IPOL

Inactivated Polio Vaccine. Connaught Laboratories, 1-800-822-2463.
Produced using three types of polio virus, formaldehyde, phenoxyethanol
(anti-freeze), neomycin, streptomycin, and polymyxin B. Medium: VERO
cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells.
MERUVAX II

Rubella Virus Vaccine Live. Merck & Company, 1-800-672-6372. Produced
using neomycin, sorbitol, and hydrolyzed gelatin. Medium: human diploid
cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue).
M-R VAX

Measles and Rubella Virus Vaccine Live. Merck & Company, 1-800-672-6372.
Produced using neomycin, sorbitol, and hydrolyzed gelatin. Mediums: M & M
-- chick embryo. Rubella -- human diploid cells (originating from human
aborted fetal tissue).
MMR

Measles Mumps Rubella Live Virus Vaccination. Merck & Company,
1-800-672-6372. Produced using sorbitol, neomycin, and hydrolyzed gelatin.
Mediums: M & M -- chick embryo. Rubella -- human diploid cells
(originating from human aborted fetal tissue).
MUMPSVAX

Mumps Virus Vaccine Live. Merck & Company, 1-800-672-6372. Produced using
neomycin, sorbitol, and hydrolyzed gelatin. Medium: human diploid cells
(originating from human aborted fetal tissue).
ORIMUNE

Poliovirus Vaccine Live Oral Trivalent. Lederle Laboratories,
1-800-934-5556. Produced using three types of attenuated polioviruses,
streptomycin, neomycin, calf serum, and sorbitol. Medium: monkey kidney
cell culture.
Rabies Vaccine Adsorbed

SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, 1-800-366-8900, extension 5231.
Produced using betapropiolactone, aluminum phosphate, sodium
ethylmercurithiosalicyate (thimerosol),* and phenol red. Medium: fetal
rhesus monkey lung cells.
RECOMBIVAX

Hepatitis B Vaccine Recombinant. Merck & Company, 1-800-672-6372.
Produced using thimerosol* and aluminum hydroxide. Medium: yeast
(residual; less than 1 percent yeast protein).
VARIVAX

Varicella Virus Vaccine Live. Merck & Company, 1-800-672-6372. Produced
using sucrose, phosphate, glutamate, and processed gelatin. Medium: human
diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue).

[Senator Bedfellow]

This is going to devolve into a discussion of what we mean by "fetal cells", I'm sure. ;)

MRC-5 is a line of cells originally derived from fetal tissue. However, the cells in use today are propagated from those original fetal cells - they do not directly come from fetal tissue today, and no fetal tissue is required to produce the vaccine.

In short, MRC-5 originally comes from fetal tissue. The MRC-5 bits in vaccines are the offspring of those original fetal cells, generations removed, not the fetal cells themselves.

[justche]

Look, if you're opposed to abortion - at the end of the day, they are currently using aborted fetal cells - to create new vaccines, and in 'improving' vaccines.

Whether fetal cells are required or not isn't the point - the point is what the manufacturers themselves admit to using in their vaccines.

More to the point to me, is the fact that there is no proof that these vaccinations provide true immunity.

I cannot understand how a group of people so united against the government governing our personal lives - so anti - welfare - so anti big brother - just gets in line for vaccinations without proof of what they do, and SHIELDING a whole industry from the consequences of what they produce. I just don't get it.

(And by the way - although I think Autism is a HUGE issue - and can't even imagine how employers are supposed to handle the up and coming workforce that will use the ADA in trying to make the employers bend the same way schools bend to accomodate - my main issue with vaccinations is not the fear of autism, it's that they simply aren't safe or proven effective, and there doesn't seem to be any type of accountability for it. Just the creation of more drugs, and more vaccines to make more money for the drug companies. )

[Senator Bedfellow]

All I'm saying is that the cells in use today are more or less clones (not exactly, but you get the idea) of fetal cells, and not the fetal cells themselves. If that's close enough to the real thing to make you uncomfortable, I'm not here to persuade you otherwise and convince you that it's really okay.

More to the point to me, is the fact that there is no proof that these vaccinations provide true immunity

Well, we do seem to have a lot fewer cases of measles these days.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I'm not yelling, just easily putting emphasis where it was needed w/o extra typing. Otherwise, I need waste-of-time HTML code (or extra typing using * bookends) in this not-so-easy forum.


I'm not knocking OPINION about baby stem cells - I'm knocking the idea that you MUST do what some company says. Generally vaccines are required only at the START of a job - while you're interviewing or Day 1. The Company is not the Government. You are not beholden to them to stay. If they do something you don't like - QUIT. If you're interviewing, excuse yourself and say you are no longer interested.

This goes along hand-in-hand w/"jess'" asking if you had the RIGHT to that Company's job. You don't - and they don't have a right to you. It goes both ways. Find another job if you don't like it.

And giving the whiny "but it's the only thing...." is just giving into commie whining about "I am owed a job". You are not. And you don't owe them your services.

[hellinahandcart]

If that was the case, then BC pills would be "100% fool-proof" for getting pregnant, per se, not just 99%.

Nothing will ever be foolproof that can be rendered ineffective by forgetting a couple of pills, taking antibiotics, or drinking grapefruit juice.

It could be that the pills are 98% effective only BECAUSE they can also hinder implantation.

[justche]

We may be seeing less measles (although every year there are cases on college campuses that require quarantines) but we're seeing fully vaccinated 'kids' and adults come down with it when it does make it's way through.

In fact when I was pregnant a couple of years ago, I was told I did not have immunity to measles - this is after being immunized as a kid - and twice at college (two different ones on different coasts) because I didn't have the proof of immunization.

So we may see less measles (that in reality is not a deadly disease - even though some cases turn that way --just like sometimes the cold can turn into pnuemonia) but now we also see all sorts of other childhood diseases that need other vaccinations, and other drugs to to control. - It's a vicious ugly cycle -I just cannot see that there is a reason for an employer to get involved in trying to enforce.

[justche]

I'm not knocking OPINION about baby stem cells - I'm knocking the idea that you MUST do what some company says. Generally vaccines are required only at the START of a job - while you're interviewing or Day 1. The Company is not the Government. You are not beholden to them to stay. If they do something you don't like - QUIT. If you're interviewing, excuse yourself and say you are no longer interested.
________________________

without seeing faces, (and perhaps hand gestures :) ) it's hard to read what is really being said sometimes!
Got it

[Sun]

It seems that the Vatican said that if no other vaccines are available, then whatever is available can be used, until something ethical becomes available.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071801.html

I would think it would be each person's responsibility to look to see if there were an ethical vaccine, first.

As for me, I would be very squeemish about using this kind of vaccine for any reason.

[Sun]

Fetal Tissue and Vaccines. Some vaccines such as rubella and varicella are made from human cell-line cultures, and some of these cell lines originated from aborted fetal tissue, obtained from legal abortions in the 1960s. No new fetal tissue is needed to produce cell lines to make these vaccines, now or in the future.

snippet from: http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/gen/contamination.htm#Fetal

[justche]

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/gen/humancell.htm

"CDC is aware that some, but not all, vaccines are made from human
cell-line cultures, and some of these cell lines originated from aborted
fetal tissue, obtained from legal abortions in the 1960's. No new fetal
tissue is needed to produce cell lines to make these vaccines, now or in
the future. Fetal tissue is not used to produce vaccines; cell lines
generated from a single fetal tissue source are used--vaccine manufacturers
obtain human cell lines from FDA-certified cell banks."

[the OlLine Rebel]

BC Pills are meant to supress ovulation - one keeps one's eggs rather than losing them. Theoretically, the chances of ovulation occurring are already very small. Thus, the chances of ovulation occurring on the pill (regularly - obviously it's not fool-proof if you have to be responsible for using) and the egg being flushed out (i.e., not implanted) are very tiny.