Are the Covid-19 Vaccines Immoral? By Dr Geoffrey Brushwood

Prevention is always better than cure. In the case of Covid-19, it is especially important that the elderly with no reserves, and risk groups with deeper problems should be protected.

There are quite a few nursing homes in my area where the infection has run rampant. In one with 42 residents, 16 died in quick succession.

There are many remedies presented against a Covid infection, none of these work without a robust immune system.

The best help, a seriously ill patient could have, is plasma containing antibodies extracted from a patient who defeated Covid-19.

The best possible prophylaxis is a vaccine. There are plenty of arguments about the morality of vaccine development using tissue taken from aborted children, however, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has stated that cooperation with evil is "not proximate" in this case.

I can understand why there are Catholics who don’t trust the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith anymore, or any moral arguments favoured by Francis et.al.

Therefore, let us look at the moral principle of legitimate cooperation with evil. Legitimate cooperation with evil means working together despite disagreement about the ends or means of an act. It doesn’t mean condoning the evil.

If we were to try to avoid any and all cooperation with evil we would be unable to act. Sometimes evil is unavoidable.

When performing an action that is intertwined with evil, one can use the following criteria to judge whether cooperation with evil is legitimate (= morally acceptable):

• The moral object of an action (= its objective goal) is good and you are operating out of good intentions (= the reasons why you choose to act).

• The evil is only tolerated as a side effect of an action.

• Cooperation is only material (= the evil means are indirectly chosen, and cooperation doesn’t contribute to the perpetuation of the evil), not formal (= the evil means are directly chosen).

• Cooperation is not proximate but remote (= doesn’t contribute to the evil action). So, it causes minimal evil effects.

• Cooperation with evil doesn't cause scandal (= tempt others to sin).

In the absence of a vaccine that has not been tainted with the use of a dead baby’s tissue, we perhaps ought to remind ourselves of the inscription written above the entrance of the ancient anatomy room at the University of Bologna: ‘Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae’ - "This is the place where death delights to help the living.”

Picture: Province of British Columbia, Creative Commons, CC-BY-NC-ND