LARGO, Fl., February 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Children of God for Life’s executive director, Debi Vinnedge, has issued a consumer warning that a new flu vaccine in early human testing is being produced using aborted fetal cell lines.

In a January 12, 2005 letter, Vinnedge asked Vaxin, a Birmingham, Alabama biotech firm, to reconsider its decision to use PER C6 in its new flu vaccine. When the company did not respond, Vinnedge decided to go public with the information.

“There are ethical alternatives to aborted fetal cell lines for use in vaccines,” said Vinnedge. “None of the current flu vaccines on the market today use objectionable sources. Why should we start now?”

While Vinnedge understands that chick embryos, which are currently used for flu vaccines, slow down production time, there are still other avenues that can and should be used. “The end, no matter how noble, cannot justify the means,” said Vinnedge. “Using aborted fetal cell lines is not ethical and cannot be justified, regardless of the reasons.” Added Vinnedge, “Why even one of Vaxin’s competitor’s for a new flu vaccine, Protein Sciences, is using caterpillar cell lines! Certainly no one has a problem with that!”

Ronald Brus, the CEO of Crucell, the company that created PER C6, was quoted as saying the cell line, which was taken from the retinal tissue of an 18-week gestation baby, is not problematic because the mother donated the fetus and no further abortions would be needed to sustain production.

“Mr. Brus is being disingenuous by glossing over the fact that these cell lines came from babies killed by abortion,” said Vinnedge. “The truth is abortion violently takes the life of a living human being and is always wrong. Therefore, using cell lines obtained from aborted babies is always wrong as well.”

See more on abortion tainted vaccines from Children of God for Life.