Author: Jon Merz
Date: 01-05-06 11:20
Source: Korea Herald
URL: http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/01/05/200601050033.asp
Date published: January 5th 2006
from Paul Garfinkel:
Ethics panel head to quit in alleged involvement in Hwang's scandal
By Jin Hyun-joo
The head of a presidential panel which has been investigating ethical issues related to the research of Hwang Woo-suk offered to resign yesterday over his alleged involvement in the scandal, his aide said.
The law firm of panel chairman Yang Sam-sung gave legal advice to Hwang about applying for an injunction to prevent the broadcast of a television program that exposed ethical problems in his research.
After the program "PD Notebook" on the MBC television network was aired on Nov. 22, Hwang discussed possible follow-up measures with his colleagues and Yang.
The following day, Hwang admitted to ethical irregularities in the procurement of human eggs for his research and resigned from all his official positions.
"Yang has announced his intention to resign. He will go through the necessary official steps to resign," Yang's aide was quoted as saying to Yonhap news agency.
Yang is currently in Japan to attend a seminar and is due to return to Korea on Jan. 8.
This latest development has dealt another blow to the reliability of ethics panels which have monitored the research of Hwang, the now disgraced Seoul National University scientist.
The fairness of the school's own ethics board was also questioned given that its members were originally nominated by Hwang's team.
The Institutional Review Board had previously concluded that Hwang's team had done nothing wrong, either ethically or legally, after its investigation into the scandal.
However, the presidential bioethics panel later discovered problems in the way Hwang's team procured eggs and is investigating further allegations of misconduct.
The National Bioethics Committee said donors were not accurately informed about the possible side effects of the operation to remove eggs. The committee said the number of ova used for the research was also played down in Hwang's reports.
The committee will convene on Jan. 15 to hold further discussions regarding Hwang's work.
"The PD Notebook" television show also presented evidence that one of Hwang's junior researchers may have been pressured into donating her eggs for stem-cell research.
Hwang has already admitted that his team used ova donated by two of his researchers, an act frowned upon by the international scientific community because of the possibility of coercion being used to gain the ova.
Hwang's 2005 paper, which claimed to have developed stem cells tailored to patients, was proven to be fraudulent and his earlier work from 2004 is also under scrutiny, investigators at Seoul National University said.
A final report about the authenticity of Hwang's research is due to be released next week.
(hjjin@heraldm.com)
2006.01.05
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