Is Double Effect Applicable to the Covid Vaccine?
by
Don Curzio Nitoglia
11/23/20
[Machine translation]
Medical consciousnessScientists, not [tied?] to pharmaceutical companies, teach and demonstrate, after laboratory research, that in vaccines there are also cells of fetuses aborted expressly with abortion procured (and not accidentally by miscarriage) for the packaging of the vaccine serum. Moreover, their effectiveness is very doubtful and the dangers of serious side effects are admitted by many researchers. So the issue of vaccines has at least three problems of conscience, the first of which is a boulder.
There are hundreds of scientific publications on this topic and I refer the reader to them, which have been summarized in
http://wwwrenovatio21.com of November 22, 2020.
With regard to the vaccine for covid/19 researchers also teach that it contains micro organisms that can change the behavior of humans, making it tele-guided as if it were a robot, so there is also this other ethical problem, that of artificial intelligence.
Moral theologyRecently, a study has been published in the U.S., which to resolve the question of whether or not it is licit to get vaccinated, applies the doctrine that is studied in moral theology a) on action with double effect and b) on cooperation only material to the formal sin of others.
In short, it is argued that it is not licit to manufacture vaccines with aborted fetuses expressly for the packaging of vaccine serums, but it is stated that it is licit to be vaccinated with them because it would be only material cooperation (getting vaccinated) to the formal sin of others (getting aborted women to produce vaccines with aborted fetuses).
Action with double effectThe problem a) of the cause with two effects and b) of material cooperation to the formal sin of others is the following:
is it licit a) to place an action, from which two effects are expected to follow: one good or at least indifferent and the other bad and then b) to cooperate only materially to the possible sin made by others?
Moral theology (see S. Th., I-II, qq. 18-20) teaches that an indirect voluntary act or in question is morally bad, if the agent foresees at least confusingly the bad effect of the good or indifferent act (for example, if I drink I foresee that I will get drunk and that I will blaspheme, now despite this I drink equally and blaspheme even if stunned without having full warning and deliberate consent in the act of blaspheming. Well, blasphemy was intentional in cause or indirectly and therefore I have seriously sinned).
However, exceptionally, moralists add that this can be licit, only if four conditions are met: 1°) the act must be good in itself, if it is bad it is forbidden as sinful; 2°) the operating subject must aim at the good effect and not at the bad one, that is he must have a morally good intention and the bad effect must not be wanted or foreseen directly, but only allowed indirectly; 3°) the two effects must not be connected between them so that the good effect (end) is born from the bad one (middle), because you cannot do the bad to obtain the good, the good end does not justify the bad means; 4°) there must be a serious, just and proportionate reason to allow and not want the bad effect.
Material cooperation to the formal sin of othersFormal cooperation, direct or positive to the sin of others, is always illegal in itself; material, indirect and negative cooperation may be lawful under certain conditions. In fact, it is not an action in the strict sense, but a negative behavior (silence, tolerance) in the face of the sin of others, not acting establishes no causality and does not involve any guilt in the evil that others do. However, it is an omission, so if there is a duty to act and to speak then the omission becomes a sin. It is lawful only if the rules of the indirect voluntary or in cause or on the omission of bad effects in a morally good act are verified.
The indirect or involved voluntary exists when something is not wanted in itself, but is only allowed to happen; however if you want something as a means to an end (for example, abortion of the fetus to treat the mother or to make a vaccine) the action is not lawful. If the effect of the volunteer in question is bad, it is imputed to the agent, if he predicted it at least in confusion (for example, Noah who did not know the effects of wine, was not guilty of his drunkenness) and if you had the power to omit the cause (if they block me with force and make me drink with violence a bottle of grappa I am not guilty of drunkenness).
The moralists explain that in material cooperation action is not directed to the sin of others, but the action of the co-operator (getting vaccinated) is exploited by the sinner (making vaccines with aborted fetuses) without the knowledge of the co-operator, as pure physical action without the knowledge of the co-operator, as pure physical action without any moral consent (for example, I sell a knife to Tizio who will kill Caius with it, without my having foreseen it; I get vaccinated without knowing that the vaccine contains aborted fetuses).
Different is the case of formal cooperation, but only implicit, ie that is not wanted inwardly, but lends itself physically and externally even if the act is intrinsically bad (for example, the nurse who works physically with the doctor to an abortion, even if it does not approve morally and inwardly, sins; who sacrifices outwardly to idols, even if inwardly abhors idolatry, sins). In fact it is never allowed to commit something that is sinful in itself, even if inwardly disagrees.
Divine Revelation (II Book of Maccabees, VI, 18, ff. ) narrates the magnificent and most current example given to us by the ninety year old scribe Eleazar, poured into the sacred Scriptures, who preferred to die rather than pretend only to eat pork: in fact, when the Syriacs opened his mouth to force him to eat pork, he resisted; since the Jєωs present, who loved him, dictated pure meat to him, telling him to pretend to eat pork, he replied that he could not pretend to have become a heathen and preferred to be martyred...but "where are the Maccabees? "Monsignor Lefebvre was asked in grief after the pan-ecuмenist day of Assisi in April 1986.
The material cooperation to the formal sin of others could be lawful, but it must be traced back to the indirect voluntary and the bad effect coming from a good act. In practice one must consider, if they occur, all four conditions that we have seen above, since only in this case is it licit to cooperate materially to the formal sin of others.
For example, if I rent a house to a doctor, whose abortion I know will be practiced there, I cannot do it, but I must avoid the bad effect that comes from renting my house, which will be used for the abortive practice.
Moreover, if the act has only bad effects, it is always illegal. Now many scientists believe that the vaccine anticovid/19 does not have any positive element, but there are many, if not all, seriously dangerous to health.
Solution of the problemNow, if the above moral principles are applied to the case of the anticovid/19 vaccine, the result is that an indirect or voluntary act is morally bad, if the agent at least confusingly foresees the bad effect of the good or indifferent act; however, it can be lawful, only if four conditions are met: 1°) the act must be good in itself, if it is bad it is forbidden as sinful; 2°) the operating subject must aim at the good effect and not at the bad one, that is to say he must have a morally good intention and the bad effect must not be wanted or foreseen directly but only allowed indirectly; 3°) the two effects must not be connected between them so that the good effect is born from the bad one, because you cannot do the bad to obtain the good, the good end does not justify the bad means; 4°) there must be a serious, just and sufficiently proportionate reason to allow the bad effect.
Now, we see one by one the four conditions, in the case of the vaccine, except the second which is not strictly relevant to the morality of the act of vaccination:
1) the act must be good in itself, if it is bad is prohibited as sinful: inoculating a liquid made with aborted fetuses explicitly to package the vaccine is a bad act. This first condition alone makes the act of vaccination immoral and illegal. In addition, the vaccine anticovid/19 was conceived in the perspective of Transhumanism, which aims to create man with artificial intelligence instead of God: "Eritis sicut Dii" (Gen. III, 5). Finally, the side effects of vaccines are very dangerous for health.
2°) The two effects must not be linked together so that the good effect is born from the bad, because you can not do evil to get the good, the good end does not justify the bad means; now without aborted fetuses (half) you do not get the vaccine and prevention from covid/19 (end). So the supposed good effect (prevention of covid) comes directly from the bad one (liquid made with aborted fetuses). This condition alone also makes the act morally bad.
3°) There must be a serious, just and sufficiently proportionate reason to allow the bad effect (preventing a virus is not a reason to allow abortion, the vaccine is not a curative or life-saving medicine, but should be pure prevention of a flu).
Therefore, you can not apply the double-acting cause to vaccination.
d. Curzio Nitoglia