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COVID-19 Vaccines, Aborted Baby Cell-Lines and Catholic Moral Theology - Part G: Does the Principle of Double Effect Apply?

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JMJ

 I was thinking the statement I made yesterday in this article (link):

The principle of double effect doesn't apply since the actual act of murder (abortion) occurred decades ago.

I realised that perhaps the principle of double effect (link to article)  does apply when focused on the act of receiving a morally tainted vaccine.

As discussed in the article, the principle of double-effect has four criteria.

  1. The act must be moral, meaning it cannot be immoral (ie evil).  This is the simple principle that the ends do not justify the means.
  2. Any bad effect (result) must be accidental or indirectly caused, whereas the good effect is directly caused.
  3. The intention that directs the action must be to create only the good effect.  For example, you cannot intend to kill someone, but you can intend to protect your life.
  4. Finally, the intended effect must be proportional to the intended end.

Let's do this by the numbers

  1. Act - Receiving a vaccine: In itself the act of receiving a vaccine is morally licit.
  2. Bad effect - cooperation in evil: In receiving a morally-tainted vaccine, we are remotely cooperating in the evil of the murder of an unborn baby that occurred decades in the past.
  3. Intention - protection from COVID-19: The intention is to protect ourselves or others from a disease (i.e.virus) that has deadly effect on some people and debilitating on others.
  4. Intended effect - Proportional to bad effect: The bad effect is remote cooperation in evil, with the good effect the preservation of life.

So in this situation the principle of double effect can be applied and the answer is still the same.

You can licitly receive the vaccinations.

This is not the hill the you need to die on ....

P^3





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