Compulsory Vaccination Threatens Religious Freedom
By Mathew D. Staver  Founder, Liberty Counsel
National Liberty Journal, September 2001, Volume 30, No. 9, pp. 14, 16.
www.nljonline.com

Most people associate vaccinations with the eradication of disease.  
Vaccinations have been a part of American life for decades.  However, many
people object to mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons.  Oftentimes,
these individuals are told that they have no choice and must receive the
vaccinations.

You may be surprised to learn that some vaccinations are derived from aborted
fetal tissue.  Vaccines for chicken pox, Hepatitis-A and Rubella were
produced solely from aborted fetal tissue.

Even many physicians who oppose abortion do not realize that these three
vaccines are made from aborted fetal tissue.  Recently, the wife of one of
our Liberty Counsel attorneys confronted her family doctor who wanted to
inject her son with the chicken pox vaccine.  When she told her doctor, who
is Catholic, that the chicken pox vaccine contains aborted fetal tissue, he
was shocked.  The doctor was even more surprised when he skimmed through his
medical books and found out she was right.

In St. Louis County, Mo., a county law required food handlers to receive the
Hepatitis-A vaccine for employment.

Several prominent Catholic newspapers published articles on the morality of
using the vaccine, and pointed out that the source of the vaccine was derived
from abortion.  After the information was made public, more and more
physicians and parents have become deeply troubled by the Hepatitis-A vaccine.

During the Rubella epidemic of 1964, some doctors advised pregnant women who
were exposed to the disease to abort their children.  The resulting virus
strain became know as RA/27/3.  R stands for Rubella, A stands for Abortus,
27 stands for the 27th fetus tested, and 3 stands for the 3rd tissue explant.
 In other words, there were 26 abortions prior to finding the right "species"
with the active virus.

The Rubella vaccine was then cultivated from the 27th aborted baby on the
lung tissue of yet another aborted infant, WI-38.  WI-38 (Wistar Institute
38) was taken from the lung tissue of an aborted baby at 3 months gestation
in the 1960s.

A second human cell line know as MRC-5 was derived from a male at 14 weeks
gestation in the 1970s.  These two aborted cell lines have been used to
provide an ongoing source for many widely-used vaccines, including
Hepatitis-A and chicken pox.

The chicken pox vaccine is know as Varivax.  This vaccine was developed with
the use of aborted fetuses.  It uses both the human cell lines, known as
WI-38 and MRC-5.

The chicken pox vaccine also contains MSG (monosodium glutamate).  According
to the Food and Drug Administration, MSG is not advised for use in infants,
children, or pregnant women or children of childbearing age, and people with
affective (mental/emotional) disorders.

Dr. A. Lavin of the Department of Pediatrics at St. Luke's Medical Center in
Cleveland, Ohio, strongly opposes the chicken pox vaccine.

Studies show that up to 3 percent of chicken pox vaccine recipients actually
contract chicken pox from the vaccine, some chicken pox cases may be
contracted from recently vaccinated children.

Some studies suggest that chicken pox in a vaccinated child may be milder
than in an unvaccinated child.  However, some experts also believe that this
may be due to the vaccine suppressing the illness, which can actually signal
a more serious underlying chronic condition.

"Atypical measles" is a disease that occurs only in people previously
vaccinated for measles, and it is far more serious than regular measles.  It
is yet unknown if "atypical chicken pox" cases will appear as a result of the
us of Varivax.

The federal government actually pays families of vaccine-killed or disabled
children nearly $100 million dollars each year, and has done so since 1986
through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

There are other vaccines that are derived from aborted fetuses for which
there are alternatives.  For example, an alternative to the Polio vaccine is
a vaccine known as IPOL, which his not derived from aborted tissue.  The
alternative for Mumps is Mumpsvax; for rabies is RabAvert; and for measles is
Attenuvax.  These vaccines are produced either from monkey kidney cells of
chicken embryos.

There are also vaccine alternatives available in the United Kingdom, that are
not available in the United States because they are not FDA approved.

A Dilemma of Faith

Many people have sincerely-held religious beliefs regarding vaccines in
general.  These individuals believe that God created the human body as a
temple, and that the body should not be destroyed by injecting a virus into
the body.

Take for example Joseph and Heyde Rotella and Maja Leibovitz in New York
City.  Both families have a sincerely-held religious belief against
vaccinations.  At the time, the Rotellas had a seventh-grade daughter and Ms.
Leibovitz had a second-grade daughter.  The school system required that these
children receive a mandatory Hepatitis-B vaccination.

Hepatitis-B can only be transmitted in one of three ways.  Either you are
born to a mother with Hepatitis-B, or you contract it by drug use through the
sharing of needles, or you contract it through sexual contact.  Injecting
their children with Hepatitis-B is like the state forcing the parents to give
their children clean needles or condoms.

In both cases, the children were expelled from school.  After several weeks
of expulsion and threats of removing the children, Liberty Counsel filed a
federal lawsuit.  A court order allowed the children back in school and
prohibited the school from overriding the parents' religious belief.

Liberty Counsel has also filed a federal lawsuit against the state of
Arkansas, where the state requires mandatory vaccinations.  Our clients have
sincerely-held religious beliefs opposing these mandatory vaccinations,
including the chicken pox vaccination.

One of our clients has actually received a letter from the Vatican stating
that the Catholic Church opposes abortion and it would be a sin for the
parent to allow her child to be injected with aborted fetal tissue.

Despite the strong evidence of a religious belief which opposes the chicken
pox vaccination, the state of Arkansas insists that the parent vaccinate her
child.  Our federal lawsuit challenges the state's law on religious freedom
grounds.

Vaccinations are becoming a growing wave of the future.  Large pharmaceutical
companies are lobbying state legislators to require mandatory vaccinations of
all school-aged children.

Some people have sincerely-held religious beliefs against vaccines in
general, while others have objections to certain vaccines because of their
aborted fetal contents.  Either way, the state cannot steam roll a person's
religious belief.

In many cases, the government cannot even legitimately argue a compelling
reason for the vaccines.  Chicken pox is not life-threatening, and
Hepatitis-B is primarily contracted through drug use and sexual contact.

Moreover, Hepatitis-B, according to the Centers for Disease Control, has
several serious side effects including Multiple Sclerosis.

Next time you are confronted with mandatory vaccines, take a moment to
reexamine your religious beliefs and become educated about the contents,
purpose, and the risk of vaccinations.

For more information about Liberty Counsel, please call 800-671-1776, or
E-mail: liberty@lc.org.  (www.lc.org)

U.S. Vaccines Derived From Abortion

Disease                      Vaccine Name                        Manufacturer
                          Cell Line(Fetal)

Polio                           Poliovax                                 
Aventis-Pasteur                        MRC-5

Measles, Mumps,
Rubella                       MMR II                                  
                                  Biavax II
                                                                             
    Merck & Company                  WI-38
Rubella only               Meruvax II   

Rabies                         Imovax                                  
Aventis-Pasteur                        MRC-5

Hepatitis-A                 Havrix                                   
SmithKline-Beecham               MRC-5
                                   Vaqta                                    
Merck & Company                   MRC-5  

Chicken pox                Varivax                                 Merck &
Company                  WI-38 and
                                                                             
                                                      MRC-5  

U.S. Vaccine Alternatives
No alternative for Chickenpox, Rubella of Hepatitis-A in U.S.

Disease                     Vaccine Name                   Manufacturer       
                 Cell Line

Polio                          IPOL                                  
Aventis-Pasteur                   Monkey
800-822-2463 kidney cells

Mumps                      Mumpsvax                         Merck & Company   
          Chick
800-422-9675                                                                 
embryo

Rabies                        RabAvert                           Chiron
Therapeutics            Chick
800-244-7668                                                                 
embryo

Measles                      Attenuvax                          Merck &
Company             Chick
800-422-9675 embryo

Please E-mail all comments, suggestions, or letters to the editor to
nlj@liberty.edu, or call (804) 582-2432.
                
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.