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Prof. Hwang Woo-suk on Thursday admitted he knew that ova from junior researchers in his team were used in a stem cell project and resigned from all official posts he holds in government and social organizations including the directorship of the World Stem Cell Hub.
"I learned about the fact that eggs from researchers were used in May last year, but kept it a secret because they asked for their privacy to be respected," Hwang said. He also only recently found out that egg cells he got from the MizMedi fertility clinic in Seoul were bought, he added.
The researchers, as Prof. Hwang explained, donated their ova voluntarily and out of pure intentions. It would hardly be the first time that researchers have contributed to medical progress by conducting clinical experiments on themselves or their families.
Smallpox vaccines were developed on account of people who injected their sons with secretions of smallpox patients. The doctor who developed the polio vaccine inoculated his family first; some doctors shared poisoned pieces of cake in an effort to identify food poisoning germs.
One of the researchers in Hwang's team, thus, told a reporter of the journal Nature she wanted to help spinal paralysis patients. We cannot blame them.
When compensation was paid to women who offered their ova at the MizMedi clinic, no law banning the practice was in effect. The end result was that Prof. Hwang and his team improved the efficiency of their cloning efforts. In their first success, they produced one stem cell using 242 eggs from 16 women; this year they produced 11 stem cells with 185 eggs from 18 donors.
Hwang attributed the scandal to the absence of ethical regulations propping up scientific research while pioneering research was carried out. ¡°I will readily accept public censure," he said.
Flaws in occyte procurement do not negate the scientific value of stem cell cloning research. But Hwang and his team are called upon to live up to the expectations of patients with as yet incurable diseases by strictly observing global standards and proceeding with international cooperation in their research. Korean bioengineering will pay a price for the scandal; there must be no other. But the contribution of our scientists is undeniable.
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