Since the 1930s, tissue from fetuses have been used for the development of vaccines and in the recent past used to help advance stem cell research and treatments for diseases that are degenerative such as Parkinson’s disease. These researchers usually take tissue samples from a fetus that has already been aborted under conditions permitted by law and grow these cells from the tissue in Petri dishes.

Most of the uses of fetal tissue (and much of the debate) are not new. It has become a problem as the public is finding out about it and not researching how this is done.

Additionally, the ways fetal tissues are allowed to be gotten and used are not new either. The guidelines on this topic written by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released these guidelines on this topic in the 1990s.

The federal regulations state women must decide to have…