{"id":45228,"date":"2019-09-26T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T09:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=45228"},"modified":"2019-09-24T11:54:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T15:54:28","slug":"fetal-dna-the-mmr-vaccine-and-paths-not-taken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/09\/fetal-dna-the-mmr-vaccine-and-paths-not-taken.html","title":{"rendered":"Fetal DNA, the MMR Vaccine, and Paths Not Taken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Lately, I\u2019ve been reading a lot about the anti-vaxxing movement. Bills in several states have eliminated non-medical exemptions and cracked down on fraudulent medical exemptions, leaving parents with a choice: vaccinate your children, or homeschool. So now there are articles coming out about unvaccinated children who are being forced to leave school, because of their parents\u2019 medical decisions.<\/p>\n

Have a look at this one, for instance<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Grace Russo is 14 and was excited about starting her freshman year at L.A. Webber Middle-High School in Lyndonville.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to things in school like sports, homecoming,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

Grace said all of that ended Wednesday when she showed up for first period and was immediately called to the office. She said school officials informed her she was no longer allowed in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not fair. It\u2019s not fair,\u201d Grace said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I feel for Grace. She is suffering for a decision her mother made\u2014and is continuing to make. She wants to go to school, and her mother\u2019s choices are barring her from doing so. What a difficult situation to find oneself in.<\/p>\n

Why doesn\u2019t Grace\u2019s mom get her vaccinated?<\/p>\n

\n

Her mom says she decided not to have her daughter receive two vaccines after doing research on the ingredients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to try to live by God as best we can,\u201d Kimberly Russo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I must have missed that part of the Bible. What do vaccine ingredients have to do with living by God? Doesn\u2019t the Bible say to obey the laws of the governing authority? I swear I read that in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

More seriously, this article from Christianity Today<\/em> likely points to the sticking point<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For certain Christians, the decision of whether to vaccinate comes down to the origins of the vaccines themselves. Some pro-life parents cite a moral disgust and a deep lament over the use of 58-year-old aborted fetal cell lines in development for several recommended immunizations, including MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) and chickenpox.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As explained by the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The fetal embryo fibroblast cells used to grow vaccine viruses were first obtained from elective termination of two pregnancies in the early 1960s. These same embryonic cells obtained from the early 1960s have continued to grow in the laboratory and are used to make vaccines today. No further sources of fetal cells are needed to make these vaccines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, yes,<\/em>\u00a0the scientists who developed the MMR vaccine grew the virus in fetal cells obtained from two elective abortions in the early 1960s. Scientists continue to use cells from these same fetal lines to produce the vaccine today.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what confuses me.<\/p>\n

People are allowed to donate organs. Parents can even donate their children\u2019s organs. We typically see this as a good thing<\/em>. Just the other day, I saw an article about a high school football player who collapsed on the field and was later declared brain dead. When his parents removed life support, they told reporters that doctors had told them that their son\u2019s organs would save seven lives. We see this as heroic, and life-saving.<\/p>\n

Those two abortions were not performed to obtain fetal tissues for vaccines<\/em>. They were elective abortions that would have been performed regardless of scientists\u2019 interest in using fetal cells\u2014which have divided fewer times and are thus more flexible\u2014for developing vaccines. I understand that abortion opponents see those two abortions as murder. But you know what? When a child or an adult is murdered,\u00a0their organs can still be donated<\/em>.<\/i>\u00a0In fact, if a child dies as the result of child abuse, it\u2019s likely still the child\u2019s parent who determines whether the child\u2019s organs can be donated.<\/p>\n

If the child is dead either way, why not<\/em> donate their organs? How is using fetal stem cell lines from two abortions that had already occurred\u2014and would have occurred regardless\u2014an ethical dilemma, especially when these cells have saved so many lives?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard some suggest that vaccines contain residual fetal DNA. Even if that is<\/em> the case, why would that be so different from cases where someone receives a heart transplant, or a kidney transplant? Those cells\u2019 DNA does not change before (or after) the organs are transplanted into the recipient. Or what about a blood transfusion? It\u2019s not as though we never inject materials that contain one person\u2019s DNA into another person.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have problems with blood donations, or with organ donations, even in cases where people are murdered. We don\u2019t have issues with blood transfusions (well, except for Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses), and while organ transplants are rare, we don\u2019t typically have an issue with those either. Yes, those fetuses didn\u2019t consent<\/em> to become donors, but then, we don\u2019t typically ask children who die of either nefarious or natural causes for their consent to become organ donors either.<\/p>\n

Abortion opponents don\u2019t seem to believe their assertions that fetuses are people and that abortion is murder. If they did, they\u2019d want the women and\/0r abortion doctors involved in those 1962 elective abortions prosecuted, but they wouldn\u2019t have an issue with donated tissue from those two fetuses saving millions of lives.<\/p>\n

If I had to guess, I\u2019d suggest that there\u2019s an \u201cickyness\u201d factor associated with fetuses at play here. Those fetuses aren\u2019t really being viewed as people, and those abortions aren\u2019t really being viewed as murders. If abortion opponents did view fetuses as people and abortion as murder, they\u2019d be celebrating the lifesaving power that grew out of the senseless tragedies of those two early deaths, rather than urging everyone they know to avoid vaccines like the dickens because there is\u00a0fetal DNA in\u00a0there.<\/i><\/p>\n

Abortion opponents could use this story to personalize fetuses and champion their cause. They could name the two fetuses whose cells were used to develop the MMR vaccines\u2014say, Karen and Steve\u2014and create pictures of what they would have looked like when they\u2019d grown up. They could hold up these two murdered children\u2014in their view\u2014as heroes.<\/p>\n

Two murdered children have saved millions of lives across the globe<\/em>. Isn\u2019t it time we stood up for them, too? #abolishabortion<\/em><\/p>\n

Karen and Steve saved one million lives this year, but they never saw their first birthdays. How many lives will you save?\u00a0#abolishabortion<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n

Two aborted fetuses have saved twenty million lives. How many fetuses will you save from abortion?\u00a0#abolishabortion<\/em><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Damn, that got real. I sometimes think I\u2019d be better at writing anti-abortion propaganda than actual abortion opponents are.<\/p>\n

As a reason for being an anti-vaxxer, the use of fetal tissue donation in developing the MMR vaccine makes no sense. To the extent that it plays a role, it suggests that abortion opponents do not really see fetuses as people. Instead, they see them as something icky, something other than, something to be avoided. I\u2019m not entirely sure what we can learn from that, but it\u2019s fascinating nonetheless.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abortion opponents could use this story to personalize fetuses and champion their cause. They could name the two fetuses whose cells were used to develop the MMR vaccines—say, Karen and Steve—and create pictures of what they would have looked like when they’d grown up. They could hold up these two murdered children—in their view—as heroes.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":45243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFetal DNA, the MMR Vaccine, and Paths Not Taken<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Abortion opponents could use this story to personalize fetuses and champion their cause. 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