Fetal tissue in vaccines
Topic: Medicine
From HandWiki - Reading time: 3 min
The use of fetal tissue in vaccines began in the 1930s.[1] One of the first medical applications of fetal tissues was their use in the production of the first polio vaccines.[1] For example, in the 1950s, scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden propagated a polio virus in fetal cells to make into a polio vaccine. The resulting vaccine was given to about 2,000 children.[2] Such tissues are no longer used in polio vaccine development.[1] Many other vaccines, including those for chicken pox and rubella, are made using fetal tissue from two pregnancies terminated in the early 1960s.[1][3] The same fibroblast cells from these pregnancies that were originally used to grow vaccine viruses have been growing in labs ever since, as the WI-38 and MRC-5 cell lines. They are still used to grow vaccine viruses today.[4][5] As of March 2017, at least 300 million vaccines have been given that were made using the WI-38 line alone.[6]
Vaccines
Vaccines that have been or are made using fetal tissue for the propagation of viruses include:
Of these, the vaccines approved for use in the United States include some of those against rabies (Imovax), rubella, chicken pox, shingles, and adenovirus (as of January 2017).[2]
Ethical issues
Despite the Vatican's longstanding and complete opposition to abortion, their Pontifical Academy for Life concluded in 2005 that parents should allow their children to receive vaccines made from fetal tissue, to protect them from infectious diseases. The Academy also called for the development of new vaccines that can be made by other means.[3] Similarly, the National Catholic Bioethics Center states on its website that "...one is morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion. The reason is that the risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine..."[9]
Legal issues
Leonard Hayflick, the scientist who created the WI-38 cell line, provoked a legal battle with the National Institutes of Health when he took stocks of them from his lab and shipped them to people for money.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Storrs, Carina (2015-07-17). "How exactly fetal tissue is used for medicine". https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/17/health/fetal-tissue-explainer/index.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Wadman, Meredith (2017-01-05). "Fact-checking Congress’s fetal tissue report" (in en). http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/fact-checking-congress-s-fetal-tissue-report.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Charo, R. Alta. "Fetal Tissue Fallout". New England Journal of Medicine 373 (10): 890–891. doi:10.1056/nejmp1510279. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1510279.
- ↑ Philadelphia, The Children's Hospital of (2014-11-06). "Vaccine Ingredients – Fetal Tissues" (in en). http://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-ingredients/fetal-tissues.
- ↑ "Human Cell Strains in Vaccine Development" (in en). https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/human-cell-strains-vaccine-development.
- ↑ Wadman, Meredith (2017-03-02). "Henrietta Lacks Wasn’t the Only Woman Who Unknowingly Contributed to Medical History" (in en-US). http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/03/the_woman_whose_aborted_fetus_helped_create_the_rubella_vaccine.html.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Wadman, Meredith (2013-06-27). "Medical research: Cell division" (in en). pp. 422–426. doi:10.1038/498422a. https://www.nature.com/news/medical-research-cell-division-1.13273.
- ↑ Binkley, Collin (2015-08-11). "Scientists say fetal tissue remains essential for vaccines and developing treatments" (in en-US). https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/medical-researchers-say-fetal-tissue-remains-essential.
- ↑ News, A. B. C. (2015-02-17). "What Aborted Fetuses Have to Do With Vaccines" (in en). http://abcnews.go.com/Health/aborted-fetuses-vaccines/story?id=29005539.
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