The Game that Left Iran in Historic Impasse  by Amir Taheri 

Statement from Pro-Life Catholic Scholars on the
Moral Acceptability of Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines

​The past year of suffering under the onslaught of COVID-19 has brought with it numerous ethical questions, and the advent of effective vaccines for COVID is no different. Foremost among the questions for those of us who are committed to defending the intrinsic equal dignity of all human beings from conception to natural death are these: in accepting any of the vaccines on offer, is one in any way endorsing or contributing to the practice of abortion, or is one in any way showing disrespect for the remains of an unborn human being? As to the vaccines currently or soon available in the United States, we agree with Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, that the answer is no. While there is a technical causal linkage between each of the current vaccines and prior abortions of human persons, we are all agreed, that connection does not mean that vaccine use contributes to the evil of abortion or shows disrespect for the remains of unborn human beings. Accordingly, Catholics, and indeed, all persons of good will who embrace a culture of life for the whole human family, born and unborn, can use these vaccines without fear of moral culpability.
 
Common to the four major vaccines, produced by Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca is some use of “immortalized” human cell lines. Ordinarily, cells taken from a body have a limited life span, undergoing only a fixed number of cell divisions before they arrest and die. For ongoing research, scientists prefer to use a “cell line,” or a population of cells derived from a single source that has been modified (typically by some form of genetic mutation) to divide indefinitely in culture. Such “immortalized” cell lines allow scientists to conduct many experiments on cells that are both genetically identical and routinely available in the laboratory.
 
HEK293 is one such commonly used line.[1] The name “HEK” stands for “human embryonic kidney,” and “293” refers to the 293rd experiment conducted by the scientist who produced the cell line. The embryonic kidney cells were originally obtained from the remains of a deceased unborn child following what appears to be an elective abortion that took place in the Netherlands during the early 1970s. The exact circumstances of the abortion are not known, but the scientists producing the cell line were not directly involved and, crucially, the abortion was not performed for the sake of providing biological materials to researchers.
 
HEK293 cells are particularly susceptible to the introduction of foreign DNA, and they rapidly became a standard scientific workhorse, that is widely used by both basic scientists and by industry. Although there are currently many modified versions of HEK293s that optimize these cells for specific purposes, all of the HEK293 cells available around the world today were derived from the remains of a single unborn child that was aborted a half a century ago. Importantly, there is no ongoing use of aborted tissue to generate HEK293 cells, to modify these cells, or to maintain them in the laboratory. Thus, the use of HEK293 (and similar immortalized lines) does not create future incentives for more abortions.
 
How widely used are HEK293 cells? They are commonly used for testing processed foods produced by companies such as Kraft, Nestlé, Cadbury and others. Indeed, the great majority of processed/packaged food products available for sale in the United States are likely to contain ingredients produced or tested in HEK293 cells.
 
They are also used as an alternative to animal testing in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. And their use in biomedical research is ubiquitous and has contributed to an enormous number of new medications and medical procedures developed over the last several decades. It thus seems fair to say that in addition to the use of HEK293 cells by the scientific community, nearly every person in the modern world has consumed food products, taken medications or used cosmetics/personal care products that were developed through the use of HEK293 cells in the food, biomedical and cosmetic industries.
 
The various vaccines have made different uses of the HEK293 cell line, with Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca using them for manufacture, Pfizer and Moderna for testing only. But these differences are irrelevant to the following questions:
​

• Do any of the vaccines make more use than others of the mortal remains of unborn children from whom the cell lines were derived? The answer is no; as a matter of scientific fact, no fetal “body parts” are present in these immortal cell lines. The immortal cell lines are artifacts—biological products that have been modified and reproduced many times over, and they do not retain the natural function of the tissue from which they were derived. They are not “body parts” in any meaningful or morally relevant sense.
• Does the production and use of any of the vaccines contribute to, cooperate with, or promote any abortion? Again, the answer is no, for the abortions from which cell lines such as HEK293 were derived happened decades ago, and no further fetal tissue is used or needed for the maintenance of these lines.

 
Common to all pro-life witness is recognition that the apparent elective abortion that led to the derivation of the HEK293 cell line was morally impermissible and involved the unjust taking of a human life. But to repeat, the HEK293 cell line currently used around the globe in scientific research and those like it do not contain the remains of any human being and so its use does not show disrespect for human remains, any more than the contemporary use of products, such as roads or train lines, that were constructed by unjustly enslaved human beings, or use of land unjustly taken, shows disrespect for those victims in the distant past.
 
As a descriptive matter, some pro-life advocates may prefer to use one vaccine rather than another in order to witness against the evil of abortion, or to signal special respect for the unborn babies whose lives were lost. Again, we agree with Bishop Rhoades that such a choice is a matter for their conscience. But we think it a mistake to say both that these vaccines are morally permissible to use and yet that some ought to be preferred to others. There appears to us to be no real distinction between the vaccines in terms of their connection to an abortion many decades ago, and thus the moral starting point is one of equivalence.
 
Moreover, there might be good reasons for some persons to prefer or to promote the vaccines, such as Johnson & Johnson, that use HEK293 (and PER.C6) for manufacture rather than testing, namely, that the J&J vaccine requires only one dose, does not require storage at extremely low temperature, and thus may be more useful in reaching remote or otherwise underserved populations. Those who have special reasons to take the J&J vaccine should not, we believe, be led to think that they are choosing something that in other ways is more morally tainted than the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
 
Persons with access to these vaccines have strong moral reasons to take them: in doing so, they build up the herd immunity that will provide the greatest possible protection for the most vulnerable among us, including the elderly, those with pre-existing conditions, some minority populations, and the many other seemingly random victims of severe COVD-19. To be perfectly clear, we are not saying that people are justified in using and promoting these vaccines because the great goods they provide offset the evil of appropriating a prior wicked action. Rather, we believe that there is no such impermissible cooperation or appropriation here. The attenuated and remote connection to abortions performed decades ago and the absence of any incentive for future abortions offer little if any moral reasons against accepting this welcome advance of science.
 
 
Signed:
 
Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center
 
Father Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.D., Professor of Biology and of Theology, Providence College
 
Maureen Condic, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurobiology, University of Utah
 
Father Kevin Flannery, S.J., Ph.D, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Pontifical Gregorian University
 
Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil, D.C.L., D.Litt., McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
 
O. Carter Snead, J.D., Professor of Law and Director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame
 
Christopher Tollefsen, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of South Carolina
 
Father Thomas Joseph White, O.P., D.Phil., Professor of Systematic Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas - Angelicum
 
Affiliations provided for identification purposes only.

[1] We believe that the same analysis applies to the use of the immortalized cell line “PER.C6”, used in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, derived thirty-one years ago using the remains of an unborn baby following an elective abortion obtained for reasons entirely disconnected to the creation of the line.

Ideas Still Have Consequences: Richard Weaver on Nominalism & Relativism
by Darrell FalconburgRichard Weaver’s book Ideas Have Consequences presents the harmful effects of nominalism on Western civilization since it gained prominence in the Late Middle Ages. This philosophical revolution toward nominalism was not only a pivotal event in Western history. It was, in fact, the pivotal event. Many of our modern woes stem from the acceptance of nominalism and the rejection of philosophical realism back in the fourteenth century... [MORE]

Melville’s Rejection of Utopia
by micah mattix
That Herman Melville became a writer in the first place—and later the author of the Great American Novel, as some people think of Moby-Dick—would have surprised his father, Allan, who said (when Melville was seven) that he was “very backward in speech & somewhat slow in comprehension.” His older brother, Gansevoort, was the one destined […]
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Trump’s Rage, Washington’s Prudence
by tillman w. nechtman & natalie taylor
Washington understood that martial strength secured independence, but republican government would require moral fortitude.
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The ‘Dictatorship of Relativism’ Has Arrived
Casey Chalk
 At the beginning of the 2005 conclave, Pope Benedict XVI preached a now-famous homily condemning what he called the “dictatorship of relativism.” The newly-elected pontiff warned: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.” Benedict’s words elicited […]
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Demonic Foes a thorough, scholarly analysis of the phenomenon of diabolic attacks
​By Father Seán Connolly on Dec 07, 2020 01:19 am
Dr. Richard Gallagher is not just some psychiatrist on the fringes of his field. He is a magna cum laude graduate from Princeton University and trained as a resident in psychiatry at Yale University School [...]
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The Suicide of a Civilization

Covid Vaccines: ‘The Ends Cannot Justify the Means’
Bishop Athanasius Schneider
On the moral illicitness of the use of vaccines made from cells derived from aborted human fetuses In recent weeks, news agencies and various information sources have reported that, in response to the Covid-19 emergency, some countries have produced vaccines using cell lines from aborted human fetuses. In other countries, such vaccines are being planned. […]Read More

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/04/scienceshot-shrinking-hobbits-brain

AMAZON

Algeria's Referendum: Stirrings of Democracy and the Decline of Islamism
By Prof. Hillel Frisch, November 22, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The events surrounding the recent constitutional referendum in Algeria reflect broader trends in the region and the prospect that Algeria might eventually join the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan in normalizing relations with Israel.
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The Danger of Dawat-e-Islami  by J.M. Phelps
American Spectator
November 18, 2020
https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/61785/the-danger-of-dawat-e-islami

Report Warns of Islamic Radicalization in France  by Judith Bergman  

Turkish Islamism and Pedophilia  by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
October 20, 2020
https://www.meforum.org/61675/turkish-islamism-and-child-sexual-abuse

Who Is Responsible for the 'Crisis' in Islam?  by Khaled Abu Toameh 

ISLAMIC AESTHETICS:  ARCHITECTURE

On October 20, 2020, French-Tunisian Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, the President of the Conference of Imams of France, gave an interview to the press, including CNEWS (France), in response to the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty in a recent terror attack. Imam Chalghoumi strongly denounced Paty’s murder, saying that he is a “martyr of freedom” and that the murderer was a criminal terrorist. – Middle East Media Research Institute

France's Showdown with the Islamic World
By Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen, October 30, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty, which occurred two weeks after a momentous speech by President Emmanuel Macron in which he unveiled a plan to defend French secular values against “Islamist radicalism,” marked the start of what might turn out to be an all-out war between France and the Islamic world, with Turkey’s Erdoğan leading the Muslim charge. By taking a stand against Muslim extremist violence and suppression of freedom of speech, Macron might find himself facing a new wave of Islamic terror.
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The forgotten history of Christian slavery under Islam
​By Father Seán Connolly on Dec 16, 2020 06:16 pm
While celebrating his first Mass, St. John of Matha (1160-1213)—whose Feast is celebrated on December 17th—was granted the signal favor of having God’s Will for his priesthood revealed clearly to him. At the elevation of [...]
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The Last Victorian
Michael Warren Davis
I once had the unenviable task of explaining to Thomas Howard what the alt-right is. “They’re white nationalists,” I said, “but they also oppose the ascent of libertarians in the Republican Party.” “I see.” He nodded. “And what’s a libertarian?” That one I couldn’t bring myself to explain. It would be an honor to say […]Read More

​Hiring government leaders: Lessons from the private sector
 Geoff Smart, Maria Blair, and Jeff McLean | November 2020

• The process of appointing cabinet leaders and hiring senior administration staff is a president’s first and most important management challenge.
  
  
• Insights about executive selection methods from a half century of research from the disparate fields of political science and industrial psychology offer some clues about how to improve cabinet and senior staff selection.
  
  
• Many structural challenges exist in the cabinet appointment process as a whole, but significant improvements can be made in the selection and “interviewing” steps that do not require statutory amendments or congressional action.
  
  
• Adopting proven selection methods would improve the executive branch’s performance.

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Governing priorities
A look into our fiscal future
​Reviving the Congress

Cardinal Pell, the Living Martyr
Fr. Mark Withoos
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The Gipper and JPII: an Alliance for Good
Monika Jablonska
Pope John Paul II once said that, “In the designs of Providence, there are no more coincidences.” That is one way to explain why a Polish pope, dedicated above all to defending the dignity of the human person, would step onto the world stage just as the most powerful country on earth was about to […]Read More

The Deep Church: From the Borgias to Becciu
Michael Warren Davis
The Australian government is now beginning to confirm what most of us have suspected for years. In a display of ruthlessness and corruption that would thrill the Borgias, Vatican bureaucrats wired a small fortune to unknown parties in Australia to initiate the fraudulent sex-abuse charges against George Cardinal Pell. According to local media reports, officials […]Read More

Francis Is Wrong on Civil Unions
Crisis Magazine   Read More

Xi’s Pope
Declan Leary
As expected, the Holy See has announced an extension of its provisional agreement with the People’s Republic of China, concerning the appointment of bishops. Under the controversial agreement, episcopal candidates will be recommended to the Holy See by the Chinese Communist Party, then approved and appointed by the Holy Father. The plan’s experimental phase will […]Read More

How to Resist Marxism According to Solzhenitsyn
Jane Stannus
 Time for our five-minute “When Marxism Comes Knocking, Be a Doormat” team-building session! Today’s wisdom comes from Coca Cola’s Better Together global training materials, reported by a whistleblower on February 19, 2021. All together now: “To be less white is to be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less […]

The Soviet Umbrella And The Volcker Shock By Michael De Groot
via Hoover Daily Report
A History Working Group seminar with Michael De Groot.

Habit and Grace
by Glenn ArberyIt should be too obvious to need saying, but thoughtfully reading the great works informs practical judgment in everyday circumstances—the sphere of the moral virtues. The Iliad, for example, shows us human nature under extreme duress. Understanding Agamemnon and the consequences of his actions gives us a complex gauge of character. We come to recognize how often in daily life surprises come and how much they reveal that we stand in need of grace... [MORE]

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by Anthony YetzerA voice of reason from the liberal bloc of our society which is otherwise teeming with madness, Professor Agnes Callard is admirable in her unwillingness to cancel Aristotle. In light of recent events, she might find his views are not so much prejudiced as they are realistic, and, on that note, timeless, unlike the egalitarian utopias which liberals are always chasing. The philosopher had a disposition toward the world around him which allowed him to see it in an exceptionally clear way... [MORE]

The Administrative Revolution & the End of Democracy  
​By Paul Krause on Oct 07, 2020 04:00 pm
If Alexis de Tocqueville were alive today and observing the situation of America, he would probably not be surprised that the democratic ethos of civil society, the township, and the autonomous local county have been crushed by the royal prerogatives of the executive and the administrative bureaucracy built around it. Most Americans are somewhat ...
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"We Have No Mercy on You People": Persecution of Christians, July 2020
by Raymond Ibrahim

We Need This Change in the Arab World  by Sara Al Nuaimi 

A Slippery Patch in World Affairs  by Amir Taheri  •

Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? - Part II  by Denis MacEoin

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/turkeys-new-mosque-monument-western-decline-bruce-thornton/?utm_source=Hoover+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=7e65066775-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_13_06_37&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_21b1edff3c-7e65066775-72527561

Egypt's Al-Azhar in dispute with government over fatwa authority
 Tensions are escalating between Al-Azhar and legislative and executive authorities over proposed legislation that would render Dar al-Ifta an "independent" institution, ending Al-Azhar's long-standing patronage of the Islamic legal body — and replacing it with state dominance and possibly tighter government control over the religious narrative.

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia holds first Friday prayers since reconversion to mosque
 Is Turkey's reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque a politically expedient decision or part of Turkey’s growing global assertiveness?

What Originalism Conserves  by Ilan Wurman
The Framers, very cognizant of history, sought to frame a constitution that successfully balanced self-government and liberty. Read More »

Irving Kristol’s Rules for Nihilists  by Richard M. Reinsch II
What if the “self” that is “realized” under the conditions of liberal capitalism is a self that despises liberal capitalism? Read More »

What Holds America Together? Russell Kirk's Roots of American Order
by Robert SpeaightRussell Kirk shows that the United States was a new thing built upon a number of very old things, and these are the roots which give it life today: the English common law, the English language, the English Reformation, the English Parliament; the Roman order and the Greek intellect, Montesquieu’s “depositary” of justice secured by the Supreme Court, and Edmund Burke’s gospel of continuity... [MORE]

Stand, Men of the West!
by Stephen KlugewiczWestern Civilization is undeniably in decline and indeed its very existence is in doubt. Yet these thoughts ought not to drag conservatives down into a morass of defeatism. Though the hour is late, a remnant must run to the barricades and shield itself and whatever is left of Western Civilization from the barbarians at the gates. I call on conservatives to refuse to cede the current hour to darkness... [MORE]

The Decadent Society & the Summer of Our Discontent
A Philosophy for Our Age: Historicist Humanism

Freedom, Responsibility, and the Liberal Arts
By Stringfellow Barr on Jun 11, 2020 12:30 pm
Pericles was proud of Athenian freedom and insisted it was worth dying for. Our ancestors shared that pride and that insistence. But they and he were proud, not of the absence of discipline or authority, but of the fact that in a society of free citizens discipline and authority are self-imposed. The other day ...
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The Odd History of the Whig Party

Thomas Jefferson, Whig Historian
by Bradley J. BirzerGiven how vital a role history placed in the English-speaking world of the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson’s own love of history should not be too shocking. Further, it should not be surprising that Jefferson embraced a rather Whiggish view of history, one that pervaded much of American political, social, cultural, and religious thought. Thus, when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was not merely writing yet another legal document... [MORE]

An Ennobling Innocence: The Founding of Socrates' Republic
by David Lawrence LevineIt is the task of the wise ruler to seek to transform the city based on force into one based on speech (if only on myths and noble lies). This is no different for a founder of a community of discourse than for a founder of cities. The primary task of The Republic, then, is the foundation of a human mutuality based on an openness to speeches. Socrates’ efforts toward this end, however, are complex and, on the surface, quite puzzling... [MORE]

The Benedict Option and the Case for Spiritual Secession

Edmund Burke on Rights: Inherited, Not Inherent
The Swan Song of Roger Scruton: Wagner’s Parsifal: The Music of Redemption

Patrick Deneen and the Conservative Understanding of Time

A Master Historian at Work
by George H. Nash
Using the chapters in this new book as lamps and signposts, Bailyn has created an elegant roadmap of his intellectual journey. Read More »

GAMES INTELLECTUALS PLAY
By EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel
Syndicated Column
The proponents of a confessionally Catholic state as the optimum form of government are small in number. But they’ve demonstrated an impressive ability to rile up the debate about the current American political situation, and about Catholic social doctrine generally, so a few questions are in order. Read More

Is Conservatism an Ideology?
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