Making ethical decisions that value human life webinar

Will you take the vaccine against COVID-19?

Lives and livelihoods are at urgent risk and a vaccine protecting us from COVID-19 appears to offer hope of recovery for both. So the imminent mass-roll out of a vaccine looks like good and welcome news! Yes?

Hopefully so, but many people continue to ask questions and raise concerns about the ethics, rights and duties around vaccination. If every life has value, from pre-birth until natural death, there are legitimate concerns about the medical ethics of developing and administering vaccines which have been developed using biological material obtained from aborted foetuses. Similarly, if lots of ‘healthy’ people refuse to take the vaccine, will this inhibit its effectiveness and continue to endanger those who are most vulnerable and at risk? In addition, the conspiracy theories surrounding this particular vaccine, mean there is a lot of unhelpful and untrustworthy information out there right now.

For many of us, this might be the first time we have had to identify and consider ethical questions around the development and use of vaccines and it can be difficult to know where to turn to for trusted information. How can we be well informed and act ethically, as we wrestle with our responsibilities to love God and our neighbour in this moment?

David Smyth, head of Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland and Dawn McAvoy, co-founder Both Lives Matter hosted this webinar with experts from the fields of medicine, medical ethics, public policy and conscience protection.