News

Tuesday May 4, 2010


Polish Parents Group Launches Campaign For Ethical-Origin Vaccines

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

WARSAW, May 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of parents from Poland has launched a campaign for ethical-origin vaccines for their children to be made available in their country.

“We want Polish parents to be aware that many of the most popular and mandatory vaccines are prepared on cells derived from aborted human fetuses,” said Karol Piekutowski, spokesman for the group Dobre Szczepionki (Ethical Vaccines), in an email to LifeSiteNews.

“Our goal is to initiate discussion and accelerate the actions that Polish authorities and global vaccine producers should take,” Piekutowski explained.

To this end the group has created a website that gives Polish parents the information they need about the unethical-origin vaccines that are routinely given to their children, and the very few ethical alternatives available to them.

“We know very well the important role in protecting children’s health vaccinations play, and understand our parental duty to subject them to vaccination, in accordance with the mandatory schedule of vaccination,” the group states.

However, the group calls for a concerted parental protest because the available vaccines, especially the triple combination vaccine against mumps, rubella and measles, are produced from cells derived from the bodies of children who lost their lives as a result of abortion (cell lines MRC-5 and WI-38).

The appeal to the Polish Ministry of Health includes demands for access to clear information about the origin of vaccines at immunization centers and the replacement of the currently used but unethically produced poliomyelitis vaccine Sabin Oral Polio (produced by GlaxoSmithKline) with its ethical counterpart, Imovax Polio produced by Sanofi Pasteur. As well, the group is requesting the future availability of ethical vaccines, stating that vaccine production must “fully respect the dignity of every human person from its conception, and will not be contrary to the conscience of many millions of patients.”

Addressing the pharmaceutical corporations, namely Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur and Aventis Pasteur, the group calls for production of ethical vaccines against measles, rubella, mumps, varicella, and hepatitis (hepatitis A), for which there are currently no ethical alternatives, and the inclusion of information leaflets with all vaccines indicating the origin of the cell line used in production.

“The information contained in leaflets of those vaccines that are of fetal origin is far from sufficient,” the group states, “and people can be rightly outraged that they had used these preparations without full knowledge.”

Dobre Szczepionki has also initiated a petition, available from their website, which will gather signatures to be delivered to both the Polish Ministry of Health and the pharmaceutical corporations.

An English translation of the Dobre Szczepionki website is available here.