Panel To Investigate Scientist For Cloning Claims 117
collegetoad writes "A panel of scientists from the Seoul National University will investigate scientist Hwang Woo-suk on whether he committed fraud in claiming he had developed tailored embryonic stem cells. From the article: 'Hwang also said in a paper published in 2004 in the journal Nature, that he had cloned, for the first time, a human cell to provide a source of embryonic stem cells -- master cells that can provide a source of any type of tissue or cell in the body.'" We've reported on this previously.
Re:The benefits being..? (Score:5, Informative)
What worries me most is anything he has said or done which casts doubt on his work or credibility will be ruthlessly employed by the opponents of Stem Cell Research, which will be of no actual good service to anymone except on a dogmatic approach.
And then they will go on to assert that their word is beyond reproach.
Re:Hopefully (Score:2, Informative)
2 cents, take at face value: South Korea has a significant Christian population, no idea on how conservative their leanings and what affiliation there may be to those of extreme Right To Life pursuasion. Source: CIA World Factbook [cia.gov]
No (Score:5, Informative)
No. FTA: it would issue its final findings next week
-everphilski-
Re:Hopefully (Score:5, Informative)
First, the data is know to be fake. From this link:
http://news.pajamasmedia.com/world/2005/12/15/6683 762_Doctor_Cloning_P.shtml [pajamasmedia.com]
Roh also told MBC television that Hwang had pressured a former scientist at his lab to fake data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies.
In a separate report, a former researcher told MBC that Hwang ordered him to fabricate photos to make it appear there were 11 separate colonies from only three.
"This is something I shouldn't have done," said the researcher, who was identified only by his last name, Kim, and whose face was not shown. "I had no choice but to do it."
Second, from this link:
http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article _1073161.php/Disgraced_Korean_cloning_pioneer_pres sured_woman_colleague [monstersandcritics.com]
It quoted the woman as saying she felt 'forced' to donate egg cells, having been told that if she did not do so her name would be removed from a research document published in 2004.
I hardly need to make editorial comment on these facts. Those without ethics will continue to insist nothing is wrong. Those of us with ethics shudder with revultion and hope the guy never works in a postition of authority again.
Not so perfect example (Score:2, Informative)
Self-correction would have entailed either the peer reviewers of Science noticing such "small" things as duplicated picutures (which, when pointed out, the editors of Science claimed was a production error, when in fact it was a purposeful fraud conducted by a junior researcher at the direction of Hwang) or the co-author of the paper (who, being on a separate continent and at a different university, cannot be seriously excused as being intimidated by Hwang) doing more than rubber stamping Hwang's "work". There were no prominent stories of biologists who were questioning the results prior to the exposure of the fraud. As the each piece of the fraud unravelled, the editors of Science engaged in a series of "yes, buts..." that would acknowledge now indisputable problems while categorically stating that the remainder of the article stood. After all, it had been peer-reviewed!
It was largely Korean television and newspapers that "corrected" the science involved here. They uncovered the ethical problems first of paying for eggs, then eggs "willingly" harvested from younger female subordinates of Hwang, then the coercive nature of those "willing" donations, the duplicated photos and the rest of the sordid mess. It wasn't until more junior researchers started to confess to reporters the scale of the fraud that the scientific community really started to get in front of this - and that largely in an ass-covering way by the University.
What fascinates me about all this is the "shock, shock" that Hwang could have done this. I think most people, regardless of where they stand on the ethics or morality of embryonic stem cell research, understand that there are at least some ethical dilemmas posed by the research (if only at the "where are they going to get all those eggs" level). The only people I've seen who are adamant that there are no such ethical issues to consider have been some of the scientists performing these experiments. Why, then, is it such a shock that people who are seemingly unconcerned about the ethical issues involved in their work might be similarly ethically challenged in the work itself? Certainly, the vast majority of such researchers are honest and decent. You are also going to attract some more unsavory characters like Hwang who broke every ethical rule he came into contact with in order to achieve prestige and national glory.
Politicized science (and it is politicized on both sides) requires even more scrutiny than normal. Unfortunately, when the scientific establishment (including journals) are nearly uniformly on one side of the debate, most of the policing of that side is going to come from outside the scientific community. The process of science will not in these cases be self-correcting. Hopefully, in the end, the science itself will be correct.
Re:The benefits being..? (Score:4, Informative)
Linky:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200411/kt20041126