Fetal Tissue
Some vaccines such as rubella and varicella (chickenpox) are made from human cell cultures, and some of these cell lines originated from aborted fetal tissue obtained from legal abortions in the 1960s. No new fetal tissue is needed to produce cell lines to make these vaccines, now or in the future. Offsetting the risk of using fetal tissue are the great benefits of the vaccines.
In 1964, approximately 20,000 babies were born with rubella in the U.S. When women contract rubella during early pregnancy, miscarriage or neurological damage to the unborn child often occurs, resulting in blindness, deafness, and retardation. Because of the rubella vaccine, by 1993, the number of cases had dropped 99.9%, to seven.
Widespread use of varicella vaccine—which took more than 20 years to develop, test, and license—can help prevent thousands of annual hospitalizations because of complications from chickenpox. These complications include streptococcal infections, multiple organ failure, shock, and death. Each year, 50–100 previously healthy children or adults in the U.S. die from complications of chickenpox.
