Korean Stem Cell Research: Science, Journalism, and Humanity

I've been monitoring the ongoing controversy over ethics violation by Korean stem cell research pioneer Hwang Woo-suk. My conclusion is that Professor Hwang did not have an ethics lapse. I'll explain why and also highlight what I see as journalistic terrorism through omission as well as outright lying. These are the details I put together from reading Korean newspapers: Eggs used by professor Hwang's research team came from doners through a medical clinic. Professor Hwang was not in a position to know who the donors were. All he knew was that eggs were being donated by volunteers. Without informing professor Hwang, the clinic paid each donor about $1500, supposedly to make up for expenses and time lost. Since the clinic had 40% stake in the stem cell patents filed by Professor Hwang, I suspect their motives were not entirely clean. When egg shortage was severely impacting the progess of stem cell research, two female assistants in professor Hwang's research team volunteered their ...

08:47:07 December 6, 2005, Tuesday (PST) Source: Don Park's Daily Habit

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