Letters to the Editor: Fetal tissue is human tissue. Regulating it isn’t pandering to abortion foes

To the editor: The L.A. Times Editorial Board writes: “There is nothing risky about using fetal tissue — this is not like testing unproven therapies on human subjects. Nor is it unethical.”

I’m astonished by the implication that fetal tissue is not human, even if “biomedical companies supply it.” Do these companies get it from their manufacturing department?

Fetal tissue, as acknowledged, comes mainly from women who chose to abort human fetuses. This is why there is the new, clearly annoying process to review projects, “to ensure adequacy of procedures and oversight of fetal tissue research in light of serious regulatory, moral and ethical considerations.”

Just because abortion is legal does not make it ethical; because an abortion is elective doesn’t make the life it ends less human. I would encourage the editorial board to try consoling someone who just lost a baby in a miscarriage or stillbirth by saying, “Don’t cry, that was just fetal tissue.”

Kim Wingert, Ontario