Ethical alternatives to aborted foetal tissue research needed, says Trump nominee
The Catholic Herald• March 13, 2025
President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stated in his Senate confirmation hearing that he is “absolutely committed” to finding alternatives to vaccines developed using aborted foetal cell lines.
His comments came last week during his hearing with the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions when he was asked whether he would prohibit the use of aborted foetal tissue in NIH-funded research.
Stanford University medical school professor and health economist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said he would follow the lead of President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the issue, reports Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Bhattacharya then said he would seek ethical alternatives to using medical research based on cell lines taken from foetal tissue harvested from aborted babies decades ago. His comments have earned him praise from Catholic bioethicists, CNA notes, while also reviving memories of the controversies that swirled around the Covid-19 vaccines.
Trump’s pick for NIH director noted that the issue around ethical alternatives to aborted fetal tissue research came to the fore during the development of the Covid-19 vaccines when many pro-life advocates were concerned that abortion-derived cell lines were being used in developing the vaccines.
“In public health, we need to make sure the products of science are ethically acceptable to everybody,” Bhattacharya said. “And so having alternatives that are not ethically conflicted with foetal cell lines is not just an ethical issue, but it’s a public health issue. We need to make sure that everyone is willing to take the kinds of progress we make, and so I’m absolutely committed to that.”
Many research labs use as standard practise pre-established cell lines that were made from aborted foetal tissue. The original cell lines were designed to replicate themselves, meaning that cell lines are no longer made up of foetal tissue, but because aborted foetal tissue was used to create them, bioethicists and Catholic leaders have voiced ethical concerns about foetal cell lines.
Covid-19 vaccines were made using such pre-established cell lines. While scientists didn’t directly use aborted foetal tissue, they used a cell line created from it, CNA notes.
At the time of the pandemic, US bishops and the Vatican encouraged alternatives that were not related to abortion where possible, while noting that if no other options were available, it could be morally justified to receive a vaccine made by the pre-established foetal cell lines.
Despite the Vatican’s assurances, along with lockdowns, the use of vaccines made from foetal cell lines linked to aborted foetal tissue – not to mention vaccine mandates accompanying the use of such vaccines – remains for many people, especially Catholics, one of the great shadows still cast by the pandemic and the way that governments took action.
Along with Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, and Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was a proponent of the so-called Great Barrington Declaration that highlighted grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing Covid-19 policies used by governments during the pandemic.
The declaration recommended an alternative approach of focused protection regarding those in danger from Covid-19, while others not at risk, such as the young and fit, were left to continue their lives much as normal.
Previously viewed as a controversial figure by much of the mainstream media due to his opinions on Covid-19 and lockdowns, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has been brought in from the cold, so to speak, due to his positions on Covid-19 and lockdowns being widely viewed as having been vindicated, along with Donald Trump’s new administration seeking to put Bhattacharya in a position of national importance and influence in the United States.
Photo: Jayanta Bhattacharya, US President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of the National Institutes of Health, speaks at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 5 March 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.)