The Catechism is clear: “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. Therefore, if a Catholic comes to an informed and sure judgment in conscience that he or she should not receive a vaccine, then the Catholic Church requires that the person follow this certain judgment of conscience and refuse the vaccine. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.” is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law: “Conscience is a law of the mind yet would not grant that it is nothing more. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs that following one’s conscience is following Christ Himself: The judgment of therapeutic proportionality must be made by the person who is the potential recipient of the intervention in the concrete circumstances, not by public health authorities or by other individuals who might judge differently in their own situations.Īt the core of the Church’s teaching are the first and last points listed above: vaccination is not a universal obligation and a person must obey the judgment of his or her own informed and certain conscience. It can also extend to the good of others and the common good, which likewise entail spiritual and moral dimensions and are not reducible to public health. Therapeutic proportionality is an assessment of whether the benefits of a medical intervention outweigh the undesirable side-effects and burdens in light of the integral good of the person, including spiritual, psychological, and bodily goods. More generally, a Catholic might refuse a vaccine based on the Church’s teachings concerning therapeutic proportionality. An individual Catholic may invoke Church teaching to refuse a vaccine developed or produced using abortion-derived cell lines.
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