Search Apartment37:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Vaccines/Abortion/Ethics/Us

There are few things in life that I am a hardcore advocate for, but as I become older and more learned, things are ever so slowly changing.

One thing I am hardcore about is not using, and purposing to tell others about, hormonal birth controls (including IUD). I will write a post on this at some later point.

As Adam and I parent Titus we have to make major decisions regarding his life. It's a tough and interesting and amazing road that leads to lots of prayer for wisdom and lots of internet research and lots of trusting in the Lord.

In the hospital, we were asked to give Titus a vaccination for Hep B. We refused it, with plans on administering it at a later time. When Titus had his 2 month appt, we knew vaccinations were heading our way. We didn't really research, but we quickly asked a parent whom we trust what their opinion was. That at least, gave us the guts to move forward with vaccines. A decision we don't regret.

As the 4 month appt neared I thought I ought to do some research on vaccines because I had heard tell that they were made from aborted fetal tissue. If that was the case, I would take issue with that. Well, I was able to get Titus's 4 month appt moved up to today. So last night, Adam and I spent some time online researching the abortion/vaccine issue. It IS the case.

We found this chart.

It lists the vaccines that are derived from aborted fetal tissue. I called ahead to the clinic to find out what brand they used for the vaccines and found out they used the brand that has the tissue. I asked about the alternative and they didn't have it.

I've never had such a severe run in with ethics before.

We, as Titus's parents, desire that he be healthy and disease free. We, as believers, will not support abortion in this way. We were able to find a clinic in San Fernando that had the alternative vaccine so at this point we are up to date.

It was a challenge today, because several nurses tried to tell us the vaccine wasn't from aborted tissue but that it was created off a cell line in the labs but we know it was a cell line that originated from the aborted tissue and none of them denied that, even if it was in the '60's or '70's. We were asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We spent hours at 2 different clinics just for the sake of doing what was ethically right.

It was a long day. We will probably go through this again at 6 months. And we will have to see what to do about MMR vaccines because I'm not sure if there is an alternative out there.

But we will continue to pray for wisdom and continue to do our research and we will continue to trust the Lord with Titus's life.

1 comment:

  1. I really admire the way you stand up for your convictions.

    ReplyDelete