A Claim of Conscience: The Duty to Prove Oneself a Resistor

An important question that arises as regards a member in a gravely unjust system is whether by any act of “resistance,” undertaken at personal risk, he or she proved himself to be set against that system. This was the question posed by de-Nazification experts employed by the U.S. military in occupied Germany after World War II.1 A similar question is posed today by social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, reacting against historical racism in the United States. We argue that, today, those who in conscience, as members of a gravely unjust system, have wanted to reject vaccinations developed or tested using cell lines derived from abortion, should be understood and evaluated in the same way. We believe that such an approach provides perhaps the best hope for the re-invigoration of society through the pro-life ideals embodied in the “gospel of life.”