A CATHOLIC officer is to sue the United States Coast Guard after claiming that his religious rights have been violated, following orders forcing him to receive a vaccination developed from the tissue of an aborted foetus, writes Timothy Lavin.

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Healy filed a legal case earlier this month to obtain an exemption from being required to have a hepatitis A vaccination, which the Coast Guard, part of the US military, requires of its officers. The vaccine is derived from lung cells of a foetus aborted at 14 weeks some 40 years ago.

"Lt Cdr Healy has a sincerely held religious belief, based on ... Catholic doctrines and tenets, that if he receives either of the available hepatitis A vaccines he would be impermissibly participating in the evil of abortion, and in societal structures that facilitate abortion, in violation of his conscience," according to his legal deposition."

Lt Cdr Healy asked for a religious exemption from being vaccinated, which has been granted to members of other denominations, after the Coast Guard in May 2006 asked all personnel to have the jab. He cited a 2005 document from the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, but last May his commanding officer denied the request, saying that the Vatican "does not state that these immunisations are against the religious tenets of the Catholic Church". The legal suit argues that the military's definition of Catholic theology is both factually wrong and discriminatory, and asks a judge to grant Commander Healy an exemption from the vaccine requirement.