Los Angeles Times Coverage of Hwang Accusations Loses Relevance to Proposition 71
In a May 12 article in the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick began her story about the indictment of Hwang Woo-Suk and five associated with the text: South Korean prosecutors announced today that they had charged scientist Hwang Woo-suk with embezzlement and fraud, saying he misused public funds for his fabricated experiments in human cloning.
The article is interesting for what it didn’t say about two areas that might be of relevance to people interested in how Proposition 71 will play out in California: the egg donation issue and the multiple fraud issue.
As for obtaining eggs, the Times article did not mention that Hwang Woo-Suk was also charged with violating the Korean law on bioethics, adopted in January 2005. He paid women money to obtain eggs for his research.
In December 2005, a US stem cell researcher commenting on what he saw as hyperventilation on the problem of egg donation in Hwang’s lab, “Now that [Hwang] has made his mea culpa public, I say it is time to forgive him and let him return to his considerable office. “The same researcher also wrote: We pay women to donate eggs for infertility treatment and overall the practice has been done reasonably well. The ESC research donation is equally important. Provided complete information, coverage, etc. is available. they are there, there is no reason per se why some financial compensation should not be provided.
South Korea had adopted a strong legal framework in relation to obtaining human eggs. She was raped almost immediately and now we have a prosecution. Although the Los Angeles Times had written on April 27: [CIRM] has also adopted world-class standards for research ethics and the protection of potential egg donors, it is noted that it takes more than standards to make sure people are protected. Embryonic stem cell research requires human eggs, and the pressure for researchers to obtain them is immense. Although it was widely rumored that Hwang Woo-Suk pressured his subordinates to donate eggs for his 2004 Science article, and later paid for the eggs, little action was taken at the time.
The issue of pressure is present in the issue of multiple fraud in the Hwang affair. Although the May 12 Times article wrote “prosecutors said Hwang and an aide made up the data in two historical documents,” the situation is a bit more complicated. Prosecutors confirmed Hwang’s initial claims that one of his junior investigators, Kim Sun Jong, falsified the results of the 2004 and 2005 studies and that Hwang was initially unaware of this falsification. This was not a one-person fraud or a concerted two-person fraud. Hwang was actually duped by his subordinate Kim Sun Jong. This is not to say that Hwang did not commit fraud. He did. However, the Hwang saga illustrates how investigative pressures can cause bad deeds for both a junior investigator (Kim Sun Jong) and a team leader (Hwang Woo Suk). Although the May 12 Times article claims that Hwang is now “despised for being a charlatan,” the current situation, especially in South Korea, is more complex. Hwang wrote many articles that were accurate, and just as he was the perpetrator of the fraud, he was also the victim of a fraud. And just as the people of California want to believe in the end result of stem cell research, so do the people of South Korea.
Kim Sun Jong’s story illustrates another point of relevance to Proposition 71. One of the selling points for state funding for stem cell research, in the face of federal funding constraints created by President Bush in 2001, was prevent a loss of research. presence of the United States to other countries. If there were no funding in the US, all the American stars of stem cell research would pack up and go to foreign countries with a more favorable disposition to stem cell research, and the US would lose its edge in this area. high impact potential. Kim Sun Jong’s story is a counterpoint to this thought. Working in a team perceived as the world leaders in stem cell research, Kim Sun Jong, according to Korean prosecutors, falsified the research results to obtain exchange scholarships in the US. He made it to the US. Specifically, Gerald Schatten’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh, which has garnered the most federal support for stem cell research. Ironically, in following up on the fraud leads made by Hwang, Korean MBC-TV producers interviewed Kim Sun Jong in Pittsburgh on October 20, 2005 and, prophetically enough by that time, told Kim that both scientific papers of Hwang would be removed. .
In short, by not mentioning the egg purchase issue and the multiple fraud issue, the May 12 Los Angeles Times article missed an opportunity to illuminate two high-impact issues in the implementation of Proposition 71. They will be needed eggs for embryonic stem cell research, and the potential for abuse, and disregard for such abuse, in obtaining eggs is a significant and predictable problem. Because the abuse in Korea occurred in the face of strict laws, the claim that CIRM has adopted strict standards regarding egg donation is not the final answer to this problem. Pressure on investigators to obtain meaningful results can lead to fraud. The Hwang affair involved independent frauds by at least two investigators, and it doesn’t fit perfectly into the “one bad apple” box.
