Welcome to the Abbey Library!

Your action is material cooperation with the evil, not formal cooperation. Now determine how proximate your action is to the evil. Is it immediate, proximate or remote?

There is no minimizing the evil of the murder of unborn babies. However, getting our children vaccinated does not contribute to the evil that has already been performed. If the demand for the vaccine contributed to the ongoing death of unborn children, our cooperation with evil would be more immediate because the evil would be contingent on our action. However, in this case getting our children vaccinated does nothing to contribute to the death of unborn children. Our action is further removed from the evil. The fetuses that were killed to produce the MMR vaccine were killed in the 1960s. These same cell lines are used to develop all vaccines. All things considered, our action is definitely remote cooperation with evil.

There should be sufficient proportionate reason for performing the action

Measles, Mumps and Rubella are fairly serious illnesses, and our responsibility to children and to public health makes the decision to get our children vaccinated a serious one. Can the same be said for Chicken Pox? Hmmm . . . You'd have to convince me.

Your action should not produce scandal

Does getting our children vaccinated make others believe that abortion or benefitting from the death of unborn babies is morally acceptable?  Since our cooperation with evil is so remote, chances are fairly small that it will scandalize others.  It would be important to let our opposition to abortion be publicly known.  It would also be good to seek out alternative vaccines that do not use human cell lines.  There are modern methods for making vaccines from animal cell lines rather than human. Currently, vaccines for Mumps, Measles, Small Pox, Rabies, and Hepatitis A are available. It would be good for Catholics to take action to promote these new methods. Write the FDA and petition the major drug companies.  However, if it is not possible to get the alternative vaccines, using the available vaccines would be morally justified.

In conclusion, your action is remote material cooperation with evil that does not permit scandal