Schlock Mercenary (webcomic) had a couple of good takes on this concept. The "wormgates" in SM were more like teleporters, in that they disintegrated you, reduced you to data, and recreated you on the other side. As a side effect, the Gatekeepers could make copies of you in transit, which is how they kept their galactic dominance intact, by interrogating and shredding gate-clones. Arguably, they murdered trillions of sapients with their gates.

In-universe, it's impossible to generate big wormholes, but the F'Sherl'Ganni "faked" it and everyone just kind of assumed there was some weird physics they'd figured out that nobody else knew.

The Teraport, in SM (or "tear-apart" as it was sometimes called derisively) at least had some continuity, by porting you through billions of microscopic wormholes. Whether that kills you or not, well, that's between you and Carl.