Officer Files Suit over Vaccine Rule by Coast Guard

January 10, 2008

CDC 01-9-08

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: " Officer Files Suit over Vaccine Rule by Coast Guard "

Washington Times (01.09.08):: Audrey Hudson

Lt. Cmdr. ph Healy has filed suit against the Coast Guard and the Department

of Homeland Security over mandatory inoculation with hepatitis A vaccine, which

his lawsuit says uses cells derived from aborted fetuses. The suit was filed

last week in the US District Court for the District of Columbia by the Alliance

Defense Fund (ADF), a group that defends religious liberties.

Since 2006, the Coast Guard has required all active-duty personnel to receive

the vaccination. The agency permits religious exemptions, but only over

objections to vaccination itself, not to how the vaccine was made.

Hepatitis A is transmitted from person to person through oral-fecal contact.

Floods, inadequate sanitation, and poor personal hygiene can spread the disease.

According to the lawsuit, Healy's " opposition to receiving the available

hepatitis A vaccines is due to the fact the he is a practicing member of the

Catholic Church and he strongly opposes abortion. " Healy " firmly and sincerely

holds a religious belief which counsels against participating in abortion in any

way, even remotely or indirectly, " the lawsuit states.

Healy submitted a memo requesting the religious exemption, citing a letter from

the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, which calls on Catholics to

conscientiously object to passive cooperation in abortion via vaccines that use

cells obtained from aborted fetuses. In May 2007, Capt. Brent Pennington denied

that request, saying Catholic teaching " does not state that these immunizations

are against the religious tenets of the Catholic Church. "

" [Healy] is not asking for special treatment; he is simply saying the Coast

Guard cannot disfavor his religion over the beliefs of others when it offers

religious exemptions, " said ADF lead counsel Matt Bowman.

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