Leilani Lutali, a Colorado woman with stage 5 renal failure, has been denied a kidney transplant due to being unvaccinated. Her potential donor is her close friend Jaimee Fougner, whom Lutali met in a Bible study two years ago.
In an interview with AP News, Lutali cited her Christian faith as her reason for refusing the vaccine, saying, “As a Christian, I can’t support anything that has to do with abortion of babies, and the sanctity of life for me is precious.”
Lutali, 56, has worked as a talent recruiter for a number of enterprise software companies, including Pushpay, an online donation platform for churches and nonprofit organizations.
While many Christian leaders and ethicists do not object to the COVID-19 vaccine on moral or religious grounds, considerable controversy has arisen regarding the use of cell lines derived from fetal tissue in their testing and production.
According to the National Institutes for Health (NIH), COVID-19 vaccines do not contain actually aborted fetal cells. Fetal cell lines, which are derived from laboratory-grown cells that were based on aborted fetal cells collected decades ago, were used in the testing of the mRNA vaccines during research and development.
NIH Director and evangelical Christian Francis Collins has called the COVID-19 vaccine “an answer to prayer” that “ought to be embraced by believers.” Nevertheless, many American Christians sincerely disagree.
Lutali Shares Her Story with Laura Ingram
Leilani Lutali was recently interviewed on Fox News’ The Ingram Angle with Laura Ingram, along with Jaimee Fougner and Colorado State Representative Tim Geitner, who has been a vocal advocate for Lutali.
When asked what she believes will happen to her without a transplant, Lutali said, “I believe my days are numbered, as I continue to deteriorate in my GFR numbers.” Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is a measure of how much blood is passing through the kidney’s glomeruli, which filter out waste.
Lutali explained that she has looked into alternate treatment options, saying, “I did reach out to the hospital to understand whether or not dialysis is an option. And they said at this point the shot would not be required but told me I was irresponsible in not getting it.”
