Recent legislative attempts in Madison would make it a state crime to donate fetal tissue derived from abortions or do research on tissue lines. It also proposes prosecution of researchers using this type of tissue. The dean of the UW Medical school, Robert Golden, said researchers follow ethical guidelines and federal law and hope to someday eliminate the use of fetal tissue.
Fetal cell lines were critical in the development of the polio vaccine and other types of fetal tissue research have saved countless children from the devastation of infectious diseases. But now, many of these types of vaccines could be at risk if the bill just proposed in the Wisconsin Legislature becomes law.