Fr Vincent Twomey SVD Distinguished moral theologian, Fr Vincent Twomey, has argued in favour of taking the Covid-19 vaccine, while warning that it shouldn’t be compelled by either governments or companies.
Writing for the Iona Institute, Fr Twomey said that allowing oneself to be vaccinated, under certain conditions, constituted “a duty to the common good”, saying that this applies in particular to adults with regard to those “in one’s immediate proximity”, who may be particularly vulnerable, such as family members with underlying conditions or aged relatives.
Fr Twomey suggested that the moral duty to take a safe vaccine applies to “the common good of society as a whole”, when no one in your immediate proximity is in particular danger of the virus.
He wrote that the three Covid-19 vaccines on offer in the EU and the UK can be considered morally “licit” in the judgement of most theologians and bishops. He addedthat it’s licit on the “important” condition that “one continues to protest against the use of such cells from aborted children…by making one’s serious moral reservations known to those administering it”.
Fr Twomey acknowledged that those who have “committed his or her life to the pro-life movement” could, in conscience, refuse the vaccine, and that conscientious objection must be protected by law, if necessary.
On the topic of compulsion to take the vaccine by governments, Fr Twomey argued that, on the part of governments, that “would amount to undue intervention by the State in matters that are fundamentally the responsibility of free persons – in a word a form of soft totalitarianism introduced under the pretext of a pandemic.”
He added that the State could, however, advise those who refuse to be vaccinated for whatever reason to abide by the preventative measures, such as wearing masks and observing social distancing.
Companies refusing service to those who go unvaccinated, Fr Twomey argued, cannot impose such restrictions as they would amount to an excessive response to the pandemic. He again cautioned that the State may presume to continue to ask those who go unvaccinated abide by current restrictions.