Charles Lewis: Morality has little hope in government MP Cathay Wagantall’s bill to prevent sex-selective abortion stands little chance of passing. Even her own leader, Conservative Erin O’Toole, won’t support it. CCN file photo Charles Lewis: Morality has little hope in government By Charles Lewis April 22, 2021
Erin O’Toole, the federal Tory leader, has said he will not support a bill to ban sex-selection abortions.
“I’m pro-choice and I will be voting against this private member’s bill,” O’Toole told reporters this month. “I will always as prime minister defend the human rights of all Canadians, including women to make this decision for themselves. I’ve been crystal clear on that and will be as prime minister.”
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Johnson & Johnson vaccine ‘morally acceptable’ despite fetus origins March 5, 2021
The approval of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for use in Canada has heightened the discussion over whether Catholics should receive the vaccine, though Church teaching remains clear that it is “morally acceptable.”
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is produced using cell lines derived from aborted fetuses, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are made using a synthetic messenger RNA. However, all the companies used abortion-derived cells during preliminary laboratory testing.
In a December statement, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, while not endorsing the use of abortion-related cell lines, deemed the vaccines acceptable when “ethically irreproachable” vaccines are not available.
Many Catholics in Canada are facing a moral dilemma over COVID-19 vaccinations. Moira McQueen, director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute tells CityNews some of the vaccines being produced were developed by using products of cells that were initially taken from aborted fetuses. “The AstraZeneca and the Johnson & Johnson ones are both unethical vaccines […]