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Embryonic Stem-Cell Researcher Admits Ethical Violation 12/4/2005 CWA’s Wright warned of potential abuse years ago.
In a shocking breach of medical ethics, the leading stem-cell and cloning researcher in South Korea admitted last week that he used eggs donated by subordinates in his work.
According to Nature magazine, the junior researcher “felt obliged to donate after making mistakes early in the experiment that wasted eggs and set the team back by months.”
This gross abuse of position and power is a lapse that Concerned Women for America (CWA) has warned could happen, and the case demonstrates growing concerns about the ethics of research involving human cloning.
Hwang became a sensation in South Korea, a worldwide celebrity and one of Time magazine’s 2004 “People Who Mattered” because of his cloning, first of animals and then human embryos.
CWA’s Executive Vice-President, Wendy Wright, expressed her concern regarding cloning’s potential exploitation of women to the United Nations as early as 2002.
“We warned that women would be exploited, treated as objects, to obtain eggs for his research. Many U.N. delegates agreed, recognizing that it would be vulnerable women, or those in cultures that require the subjection of women, who would be targeted for egg harvesting,” she said upon Hwang’s admission. “Thus they passed a Declaration calling on countries to ban human cloning.
“Dr. Hwang – credited as the first researcher to create cloned human embryos – now is also the poster child of rogue scientists, for whom ethical standards are passé in the race for scientific advancement and international acclaim. Pro-cloning advocates have argued that scientists should not be hindered by moral standards, that they can determine what is ethical and what is not,” Wright said. “Dr. Hwang shatters this illusion, and has proven the need for scientists to be reined in, especially when it comes to experimentation upon human beings.”
In the admission’s wake, a key American researcher and professor who collaborated with Dr. Hwang officially broke ties with him. Gerald Schatten from the University of Pittsburg said: “Compliance concerns with ethical practices for obtaining donated oocytes [cells that develop into eggs] in their 2004 report, and the resultant breach of trust, are the issues that force me to make this decision.”
Other allegations against Dr. Hwang have also arisen, calling much of his work into question.
The doctor’s actions go against many principles in the scientific community, according to Stanford bioethicist David Magnus, who said: “Science depends upon the honesty of the people who submit articles. The whole system would come crashing down without it.”
“We hope that this example will cause the scientific community to halt the race toward cloning so that no more harm is done,” said Wright.
For more information on cloning from CWA, read: Details of exploitation that would arise from cloning may be obtained from www.cloninginformation.org.
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