By Fr Ezra Sullivan OP
First, a basic principle of morally sound medical care is “informed consent”: adults have the right and responsibility to know what medical treatments and procedures are available, and to make their own prudential decision about what is best for their own health. No one should be coerced to receive experimental medical procedures or treatments. All people have a right to refuse to be a test subject for the medical and social experiments surrounding the vaccines (see the Nuremburg Code regarding, “Permissible Medical Experiments,” no. 1). Vaccine mandates violate this basic principle by placing heavy burdens upon people to receive the mRNA vaccines, which are undoubtedly experimental because of their newness and very short-term track record, with unknown long-term effects.
Second, there’s no health justification for any kind of mandate at this point. The Omicron variant is not mortally dangerous for the vast majority of people who contract it. This is not the Black Death; it’s not even Smallpox or the Spanish flu. In fact, overall deaths and hospitalizations continue to fall even in places where there is no vaccine mandate whatsoever.
Third, the mandates are not strictly necessary for the common good, and therefore there is no moral justification for them. Basic civil rights of people cannot be removed by the state for a mandate that delivers so little benefit. For example, Israel is one of the most vaccinated nations, but it also has the highest infection rate in the world. Vaccinated but un-boosted people in Britain are dying at higher rates than the unvaccinated. Restrictions and vaccine mandates in France have seen an enormous spike in confirmed cases. In fact, pushing universal vaccination at this point will only force the virus to continue mutating into potentially vaccine-resistant variations that will be more harmful for the populace.
Fourth, the mandates manifest a disturbing technocratic cynicism, in which citizens are treated like objects, and their personal subjectivity and responsibility for their health is eliminated by bureaucratic tyranny. Instead of trusting average doctors to decide with their patients what is the best course of treatment or prevention for disease, a very few apparent experts are consulted, and they are typically compromised by a conflict of interest as they serve to benefit from lockdown policies. The quarantine camps in Australia show the ultimate logic of the vaccine mandates: absolute control over citizens by the State for the thinnest reasons, contrived by fearful and opportunistic politicians.
In sum, a careful analysis of the relatively low harm of the virus in its present form, and the relatively small benefit of vaccination, shows that there is no moral duty for anyone to be vaccinated at this time — and there is no moral right of governments to mandate vaccination.
Vaccine mandates are wrong, and officials should not promote them. Instead, people should resist the mandates, stop wallowing in fear, and live in the freedom of the children of God.
Father Ezra Sullivan OP is professor of moral theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and the author of “Using Abortion-Derived Vaccines: A Moral Analysis” (2021 Nova et Vetera)
Finally, so well said. I want to print this out and make everyone I know read it. It’s been feeling like all common sense was replaced with Zombie like obedience. Thank you, thank you.
Good article, Father. I would add that there is substantial evidence that the vaccines are causing harm. Sadly, our pope and a number of other church leaders are not only promoting the vaccines, but claiming that we are morally obliged to take them. I sincerely hope and pray that more people come round to your viewpoint.
Thanks! So many feel abandoned by the Church leadership right now for being way too cozy with Caesar. Thanks for being a soldier for Christ!
Surely this question should be answered more from the point of view of public health than from that of “moral theology.” From a legal point of view, such a mandate is clearly within the police power of the individual states (not the federal government).
No, not all, especially when it is a moral question and the scientific-less and law-less communities are not what they are supposed to be….blessings
I am not vaccinated because I have a list of objections. I recently got Covid, and yet still got fired from my job. There is no consideration given for someone who needs to work to support his family if it conflicts with these foolish mandates.
Another Dominican, who also is a moral theologian, (although he is more well known as a molecular biologist), offers a “sed contra” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8150156/. See also what the USCCB has to say: US Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Moral Considerations Regarding the New COVID-19 Vaccines,” December 11, 2020. Available at https://www.usccb.org/moral-considerations-covid-vaccines. Finally, as with all decisions, especially those that surround moral choices, prayer is essential for authentic moral judgment.
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Thank you for your comment. Your focus is on the moral questions regarding the vaccines’ links with abortion in production and testing. This is an important question but it’s not the focus of Fr Sullivan’s commentary which is dedicated to the immorality of vaccine mandates at this time.
God bless this good and courageous priest!