Are organs from live babies used in vaccines?

On the Tucker Carlson Show, lawyer Aaron Siri claimed that vaccines are made using organs taken from babies while they are still alive.

• Some vaccines use lab-grown cells descended from tissue collected in the 1960s.
• The cells are removed during vaccine production.
• The Vatican and other faith leaders support vaccination to protect people and communities.

To understand these claims, it helps to know what a cell line is and how it is used. A cell line is a group of cells grown in a lab over time. Two cell lines used to make some vaccines, WI-38 and MRC-5, began with tissue from first-term abortions in the 1960s. The cells used today come from those earlier cells. No new abortions are needed to supply these cell lines for vaccine production.

“Living cells” does not mean that a fetus is still alive. Some cells can survive for hours after a person dies. Finding living cells in tissue does not show that a fetus was kept alive for research.

These lab-grown cells help grow the viruses used in some vaccines. The cells are then removed as the vaccine is purified. Tiny pieces of DNA, the material that carries a cell’s instructions, can remain. These pieces are not whole cells or fetal tissue. Vaccines do not contain millions of fetal cells.

Even though these events happened long ago, some people still have moral concerns. In 2005, the Vatican said it is acceptable for Catholics to receive certain vaccines when they help protect health. In 2017, the Vatican explained that protecting others through vaccination is an important moral responsibility. This is even more true in 2026, when 5 people have died from measles in Pennsylvania.

Recently, leaders across many faith communities have proclaimed that protecting their communities is important.