John Kleinsman, Author at NZ Catholic Newspaper

The ethical derivation of vaccines for COVID-19

John Kleinsman — Tue, 26 May 2020 22:04:19 +0000

by JOHN KLEINSMAN

It is generally accepted that a Covid-19 vaccine provides the best possibility of an “exit strategy” from the pandemic that is currently sweeping the world. Many companies around the world are currently working to produce such a vaccine – reports detail that there are more than 100 different vaccine projects underway, with eight already being studied in humans.

Human vaccines are typically developed using human cell lines – cell cultures developed from a single human cell. One of the sources of the cells used for human cell lines is tissue from aborted fetuses, something which presents a significant moral dilemma for Catholics and others. Catholic teaching upholds the principle of the inviolability of human life which precludes the use of human embryos or aborted fetuses for medical research. Put another way, we should never use another human life as a means to an end, no matter how good the intention.

There are some companies using only ethical cell lines for the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Recently, in the United States, a group of mostly Catholic advocates, including some bishops, have appealed to federal health authorities to ensure that research on coronavirus vaccines occurs using cell lines free from any connection to abortion. If such a vaccine is successfully produced, there are no moral issues, related to abortion, associated with its use.

However, there are other companies using cell lines that have been derived from aborted fetuses. This means that there is a real possibility that a successful vaccine, and there may only be one, could be directly linked to human abortion, whether recent or in the distant past.

This is not a new dilemma. The rubella vaccine, for example, derives from the WI-38 cell line that uses lung tissue from a 3 month-gestation female fetus aborted in the 1960s. The specific dilemma for those who oppose abortions of any kind is the extent to which, in using such a vaccine, we are condoning abortion and potentially encouraging further abortions. Put another way, the question is whether there is a contradiction between opposing abortion and consenting to a vaccination programme.

The Pontifical Academy for Life has previously spoken out on this, stating in a 2005 document that, when the cell lines being used are “very distant” from the original abortions, then there is no “morally relevant” cooperation between those who use the vaccine and the original abortion. Assuming there are no other effective ethical alternatives (which should always be preferred), the academy concludes that it is not just morally acceptable to use such a vaccine but, where the vaccination coverage is necessary for the safety of others, there is a “moral obligation” to use it.

Critical to the Pontifical Academy’s conclusion is the fact that the ongoing production of the vaccine does not rely on or require new abortions. This rationale would apply equally to a coronavirus vaccine that was produced from a historical cell line linked to an abortion. In the event there was no other alternative for immunising people against the coronavirus, it would be not just morally acceptable, but arguably obligatory.

These days, there are ethical cell lines and processes available to produce the cell lines necessary to produce vaccines that do not rely on abortions. However, there are still some companies using cell lines derived from recently aborted cells (as opposed to historic cell lines). In the event there were no other ethical effective alternatives, we could realistically find ourselves having to choose between using a morally unacceptable vaccine produced from such a cell line or not being immunised.

This would pose a genuine dilemma for many. How would this be resolved? The use of such a vaccine would ultimately be a matter of individual conscience.

On the one hand, by deciding not to take such a vaccine, an individual would be making a strong and prophetic stand in favour of the value of human life. At the same time, they would be rightly rejecting any sort of utilitarian calculus by which it might be reckoned that the death of a “few” innocent human lives is outweighed by the potentially millions of lives that would be saved. The Catholic moral tradition rejects any approach to decision-making that is based entirely on a numerical calculation – the morality of any action cannot be decided on consequences alone. This is another way of saying that the morality of our intentions is not always sufficient to make an action moral – in the Catholic moral tradition we have to weigh up the morality of the “means” as well as the morality of the outcome or intention.

On the other hand, in the messiness of life we do sometimes have to choose between two “bad” outcomes. In weighing up whether we might refuse a coronavirus vaccination, it becomes evident that the impact of such a decision creates a risk not just for ourselves, but also for many others. That is because the impact of not being vaccinated means we risk passing on a potentially fatal virus to the people we live, work and socialise with, in particular vulnerable people with underlying conditions. We may not want that to happen, but it remains a foreseeable and highly likely consequence of not being vaccinated. It would be different if the burden of taking such a decision only fell on the decision-maker; however, in rejecting the only viable vaccine, we would also be taking that risk on behalf of (potentially many) others without their consent. That is equally something we are not ethically entitled to do.

That is why some Catholic ethicists have concluded that there is “no absolute duty” to boycott any Covid-19 vaccine produced with the help of cells recently derived from aborted fetuses, when no other alternatives exist. I personally agree with that conclusion, while hoping that such a scenario never presents itself.

That means I also support advocating for researchers to carry out any new research only on cell lines that are morally acceptable.

Dr John Kleinsman is director of the NZ Catholic Bioethics Centre.

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15,000 euthanasia opinions

John Kleinsman — Sun, 29 May 2016 23:43:15 +0000

It is about one year ago that Lecretia Seales took her case for euthanasia and assisted suicide to the High Court in Wellington. One of the declarations she sought was whether her particular situation and circumstances (having a progressive advanced incurable illness)
could be seen to fall outside the long-standing laws against assisting suicide and against homicide.

John Kleinsman

Justice David Collins, the judge who ruled on the case, was clear that the law would regard any such acts as illegal. He then concluded that it was only for Parliament to consider any such changes.

In June 2015, a matter of weeks after the conclusion of the High Court case, former List MP Maryan Street presented a petition to Parliament on behalf of the Voluntary Euthanasia
Society of New Zealand. That petition was subsequently forwarded to the Health Select Committee, which duly called for public submissions on the matter.

To complicate matters further, in October ACT Party MP David Seymour decided to put his own Private Members Bill into the ballot, calling for euthanasia and assisted suicide.

That Bill could be drawn at any time irrespective of where the select committee investigation is at. The provisions in Mr Seymour’s Bill would make “assisted dying” available to anyone
over 18 years of age on the basis of “unbearable suffering unable to be relieved in a manner the person considers tolerable” — virtually assisted suicide/euthanasia on demand.

To date, no official reports have come from either the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives (who receive and process public submissions) or the Health Select Committee. What we know unofficially is that more than 15,000 New Zealand individuals, experts and organisations, an unprecedented number for a petition such as this and far exceeding the expectations of everyone, including the Office of the Clerk, which is still processing submissions more than three months after the close off date of February 1.

What happens next is the Health Select Committee will arrange for those who want to appear in person to speak to their submission. This will take some months as the committee has a limited number of hours and is also dealing with other business. All in all, it is not unreasonable to conclude that it won’t be able to deliver its report until sometime in 2017.

In the meantime it is possible that MP Seymour’s Bill could be pulled from the Private Members Ballot. If this were to happen before the committee had released its report, Parliament would find itself in a unique situation — having to debate the desirability of a euthanasia and assisted suicide law before the results of a significant investigation on the issue could be presented.

Should that happen, my view is that MPs should vote Seymour’s bill down at the first opportunity. The considered information and views of 15,000 New Zealanders should not be ignored — people’s contributions, both for and against change, must inform any future parliamentary debate about this complex issue.

In the meantime, yet another major Court in the United States has ruled that there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide.

In a judgment issued on May 3, a New York Court drew attention to “the risks that could be presented to the elderly, poor, socially disadvantaged, and those without access to good medical care; and the role of treatable symptoms such as pain and depression in creating a desire for lethal medications”.

It also noted that “most doctors lack a sufficiently close relationship to their patients to appropriately evaluate a request for help in ending life, and expressed the concern that it could open the door to euthanasia of those incapable of giving consent”.

This ruling adds to a long list of jurisdictions around the world that have rejected law changes in recent months.

Dr John Kleinsman is director of the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre – the Nathaniel Centre.

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NZ ethicist likes papal call on love and family

John Kleinsman — Tue, 03 May 2016 03:22:51 +0000

by JOHN KLEINSMAN
In two days much had already been written about this highly anticipated document [Pope Francis’s The Joy of
Love], and much more will surely be written on it. Rather predictably, many commentators zeroed in on “hot-button
issues” of cohabitation and the question of couples in “irregular” second marriages accessing the sacraments.
These issues are dealt with largely in chapter eight where, showing the instincts and wisdom of a great and caring pastor, Pope Francis has given us all an important reminder of the Church’s teaching on conscience and an excellent primer on the basics of Catholic moral theology — stressing that “a negative judgment about an objective situation does not imply a judgment about the … culpability of the person involved … Under certain circumstances people find it very difficult to act differently … the consequences of actions taken are not necessarily the same in all cases” (n.302).
What is important is to recognise the goodness in people while offering the healing power of grace and the light
of the Gospel message — “the logic of integration is the key to their pastoral care…” (n. 299).
A number of commentators on the document, mostly Catholic, are going so far as to accuse Pope Francis of making
the Church “ruthlessly liberal” under the guise of building an inclusive Church. But there is no “new” moral
teaching in Amoris Laetitia. As one experienced New Zealand parish priest, ordained for more than 40 years, said
to me on April 10: “We were taught this approach in our moral theology and pastoral theology classes when I was in
the seminary.”
In other words, the approach taken by Pope Francis is more a case of “back to the future” — a reminder of what some have forgotten; a challenge to recognise the folly of simply imposing rules on people in very difficult situations that only leads them to feel judged and abandoned (n.49). Indeed, an honest assessment of the Church and its more recent failings in reaching out to people who are hurt is, for me, one of the things that stands out in reading this exhortation, including a tendency in our moral teaching and preaching towards “excessive idealisation” (n.36).
This is not the writing of a pope preaching down to the assembled hordes in Vatican Square from the steps of St Peter’s but a pope seated among his people reflecting on their conversations as fed back to him through the two
synods on the family.
For me it has the feel of an “adult-to-adult” discussion rather than a “parent-to-child” lecture.
It is a thoroughly grounded document which appreciates the complexities and challenges of modern living, but holds
out hope and seeks to encourage in the real sense of that word — to have and act with greater courage in the name of love, mercy and truth.
Having read many papal documents in my lifetime I am struck by its style and honesty. It is refreshingly disarming
and I’m appreciative of that. Just as Peter, who failed Jesus three times on crucifixion day, is fed by the resurrected Jesus on the beach before being asked three times, “Do you love me?” so Amoris Laetitia focuses on the need to meet and feed people where they are at and to respond to people’s failures with the sort of love that calls them on, gradually but surely, to become better disciples and even great leaders, as was the case with St Peter.
The word “love” appears in different forms a staggering 483 times throughout the document, but at the same time there is no sense that the truth and wisdom of our moral teaching has been or can be sidelined.
However, important as the questions of morality and pastoral care are, I hope that this is not all the document will be remembered for. It is a rich, broad and varied document that contains much wisdom to reflect on. In particular, I recommend reading chapter four titled “Love in marriage” — an extended reflection that carefully and tenderly describes human love in a way that is unprecedented in previous papal documents. In fact, chapter four is a great place to start reading the document.
Pope Francis states early on in the exhortation that it should be read without rushing … and I have done exactly the opposite. But I am spurred on to now go back and read it more slowly and deliberately.
I hope and pray that is what we all do for there is something in this great document for everyone, including those
who feel that there are some opportunities missed.
Dr John Kleinsman is a married man, director of the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre and a lecturer for The Catholic Institute. Last year he participated in the second Synod on the Family in Rome.

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Couple share experiences from 2015 Synod

John Kleinsman — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 00:43:15 +0000

by MICHAEL OTTO
Priestly formation should be geared to living a closer relationship with families in parishes, and couples should not be separated when performing parish ministries.

Tony and Cathy Witczak arrive for a session of the Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican on October 12, 2015. (CNS photo)

Those were some of the messages delivered to last year’s synod on the family in Rome by Tony and Cathy Witczak, from the United States.
On February 28, at St Mark’s parish in Pakuranga, the couple gave a presentation on their experience at the synod, where they were auditors.
They know St Mark’s parish priest, Fr Emile Frische, MHM, well, having been alongside him on Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s internal leadership team.
At St Mark’s, the Witzacks read out their three-minute “intervention” given at the synod, in which they outlined how a marriage encounter weekend in 1979 had led them to see their married vocation in a new light.
“Together, we discovered that God wanted us to be intimately united so we could be radiant signs of his love in the world,” Mr Witczak said.
The model of couples working side by side with a priest is one they believe in.
“This intimate community helped us to see how we are meant to support one another, in our common mission of building the family of God,” Mrs Witczak said. “The priest challenges the couple to grow spiritually; the couple offers the priest the opportunity to grow emotionally as part of a family.
“Together, in community, they offer a wonderful model for Church that encourages openness to vocations.”
Three suggestions
Mr Witczak read out three suggestions the couple made to the Pope and the synod fathers. The couple stressed the need for better programmes for engaged and married couples in the Church.
They also said couples should not be separated when taking part in parish ministry, “but rather let the sacrament shine by allowing them to work as a team”.
Their third recommendation concerned priestly formation being geared to living a closer relationship with families in their parishes.
“If the Church is meant to be a family of families, then we should encourage our seminarians to be priests in love with their people, not merely priests in charge of a parish,” Mr Witczak said. “Our faith is based on relationship with God, but it is learned and lived out in relationship with others.”
The Witczaks told the St Mark’s gathering that when they arrived at the synod, “we felt rather in over our heads”. “It seemed to us that everybody knew all these titles of documents and all the things going on in the Church, and we felt a little bit inadequate to say the least,” Mrs Witczak said.
“We had to keep reminding ourselves … that we weren’t being asked to be experts on theology, we were asked [to the synod] because we were experts on marriage and living the sacrament.”
The couple, who have been married for 49 years, have four children and 16 grandchildren.
At the synod they attended the general assemblies and also took part in small group work, being members of an English-speaking group that included Dr John Kleinsman from New Zealand, Cardinal Vincent Nicholls of Westminster, and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
“At one point, we shared around the group what family meant to us … and it was amazing the stories that came out, and we began to feel more like a family, that we all had something in common, the experience of being a family, the experience of being Church,” Mrs Witczak said.
The Witczaks were grateful that the synod was an exercise in listening and journeying together.
“Every couple [there] was able to bring their concerns, their struggles, the joys about families, what is happening in their part of the world to the Pope himself and to the synod fathers,” Mr Witczak said.
The fact that there was a strong emphasis on listening is evident in the pastoral flavour of the synod’s final document delivered to Pope Francis, they said.
“The synod fathers were sincerely trying to listen to every voice,” Mrs Witczak said. “But the problem was that some of the press was asking for and expecting doctrinal change, and that was not something any of the synod fathers had in mind,” she said.
“It is about procedural changes, pastoral changes, how can we better respond? We are not going to change our beliefs, the teachings of the Church.”
The couple cited references to samesex “marriage” in the final document as an example.
“I think the way they put it was that gay ‘marriage’ is in no way shape or form equal to the sacrament of marriage, but there was strong support, from everybody there, recognising that gay men and women are part of our family and we love them and we welcome them and we try to show them the correct path,” Mrs Witczak said.
On the final day of the synod, the Witczaks asked Pope Francis for a word of encouragement for Worldwide Marriage Encounter.
The Pope responded: “You must continue lighting the way for others.” Mrs Witczak said the couple realised that this not just advice for marriage encounter, but for everyone, to continue being good families and good couples and “to continue lighting the way . . .”.
The head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said in January that the Pope’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation would probably be published in March.
Archbishop Paglia predicted that the papal document will “show that the Church is close to families in all stages of their lives”.

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Four Kiwis to bring insights to Pope’s discussion on marriage and the family

John Kleinsman — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 23:02:04 +0000

By Simone Olsen
Two lay people and two Bishops from New Zealand will travel to Rome to participate in the Catholic Church’s discussion led by Pope Francis on Marriage and the Family, next month.

Top (left to right) Sharron Cole, Dr John Kleinsman
Bottom (left to right) Cardinal John Dew, Bishop Charles Drennan

Mrs Sharron Cole, Dr John Kleinsman, Cardinal John Dew and Bishop Charles Drennan will be attending.

The Synod gathering follows on from the gathering last year on the same topic which was widely discussed throughout the world. Synods are gatherings held annually of Cardinals and Bishops and given the nature of the topics discussed at the gathering in 2014 and the one coming significant input from lay people has been included.

This is a significant number, named in a list of participants overnight from Rome, from a small country like New Zealand, especially a country with a small Catholic population. It reflects Pope Francis’ efforts in reaching out to the margins, including geographical ones, ensuring that the Church throughout the world has a voice in this global discussion. Add to that, Cardinal Soane Mafi, Bishop of Tonga, and Archbishop Mark Coleridge and Bishop Eugene Hurley, and Ms Maria Harres from Australia who will also be attending and there will be significant input from the Pacific.

“In travelling to Rome I will be mindful of people back home in New Zealand, and especially the significant percentage of Catholics who feel they no longer belong within the Church. For many, this is because their committed relationship or their family does not fit within the parameters or the language the church usually uses to describe family. They do not see themselves in the language we use to describe family.” said Bishop Charles Drennan of Palmerston North.

“I’m looking forward to taking part in these discussions, I’m particularly grateful that New Zealand will have two lay people representing us and in particular to have in them the expertise and backgrounds from which Sharron Cole and John Kleinsman come from.” Said Cardinal John Dew

“The task I’ve been asked to do involves helping with the drafting of the documents, drawing together feedback from the Synod interventions and small group discussions. I feel very privileged to be able to be a part of what is such an important conversation in our Church at this time. I’m looking forward to hearing the different perspectives and learning about the issues that affect families in cultures very different from New Zealand. It is great that Pope Francis is enabling a forum where people can honestly and respectfully share their views and opinions. This sort of gathering is very much in keeping with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and its emphasis on the Church being concerned not just with itself but with humankind as it really is today.” Said John Kleinsman

“I’ve been invited to give a presentation on a related topic and participate in the Synod discussion. I’m mindful that it is a privilege to contribute in this way and would like offer insights from my own personal experience, as a wife and mother, as well as things I’ve observed about New Zealand families through my professional work and from my own parish community.” Said Sharron Cole.

Simone Olsen is the communications adviser of the NZ Catholic Bishops

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Likely NZ martyr centre of Year of Faith celebration

John Kleinsman — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:12:32 +0000

by KATE MAHONY
WELLINGTON — Archbishop John Dew has encouraged parishes in the archdiocese to plan something special to mark the Year of Faith.
Commemorating the courageous life and death of one of their own, Fr Francis Vernon Douglas, was Johnsonville’s Sts Peter and Paul’s response.
John Kleinsman, one of the team that coordinated the three-day event in late June, said commemorating the life and death of Fr Douglas was a way of highlighting someone who is a source of inspiration and a relevant role model for people living out their faith today.
The organisers wanted an event that would provide opportunities for prayer and reflection on what it means to hear the call to mission in the 21st century.
“The point of focusing on the life and death of Francis Douglas was as much about letting his life inform us and pose questions to each of us about being missionaries as it was about recalling the faith witness and martyrdom of a wonderful faith-filled and courageous man,” Dr Kleinsman said.

Nieces and nephews of Fr Francis Vernon Douglas, from left, John Douglas, Jo Benaki, Margaret Carson, Patrick Scullin, Maria McIElroy and Margaret Marshall.

The event included an opening liturgy celebrated by Archbishop John Dew in which a newly framed portrait of Fr Douglas was blessed before it went on display in the church. Other events included: parishioners Helen Rook, Steve Tamarapa, Miriam Vender and Ewen Laurenson sharing their personal understanding and practice of mission, a school Mass celebrated by Archbishop John Dew for St Brigid’s, Johnsonville, and St Benedict’s, Khandallah, and veneration and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Columban Fathers Michael Gormly and Patrick O’Shea spoke on mission. Members of Challenge 2000 decorated the church and provided an inspiring drama.
Members of Fr Douglas ’s family — including his nieces and nephews — came from as far as Auckland and Hawke’s Bay to the commemoration. The Filipino community, along with the Philippines Ambassador to New Zealand, Virginia Benavidez, took part in the Saturday evening Mass, which was also the celebration of the parish’s two patrons.
Dr Kleinsman said a personal highlight was the way the three days drew in so many different people. “It was an event that brought us together as a community of faith and made me feel so proud to be Catholic.”
See www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5d23/douglas-francis-vernon for more information.

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