Hwang Team 'Paid 20 Women for Donating Ova' Ova Procurement Scandal Makes Worldwide Waves Interview Prompted Occyte Donation Scandal Stem Cell Pioneer Must Come Clean Science Has no Plans to Retract Hwang Research Paper Hwang Supporters Condemn MBC Investigative Report Investigative Program Pays Price for Targeting Hwang

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source close to Hwang’s team said allegations that two female researchers in the team donated egg cells for the experiments in 2003 were true.Critics say using ova donated by junior researchers would be unethical because it could involve coercion.

Lee Byeong-chun, a professor of veterinary medicine at Seoul National University who also participated in Hwang’s research, said a committee at SNU College of Veterinary Medicine was investigating all researchers who worked in Hwang’s lab. No results are available because the college’s Institutional Review Board has not finished its investigation of researchers currently living abroad, Lee added.

That suggests that at least one of the junior researchers who donated eggs is living abroad. The researcher was reportedly a graduate student who invented a new way of removing the nucleus from eggs and is now working at a research institute in a U.S. university.

Meanwhile, the government plans to revise regulations on occyte donations.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said there was a need to draw a clear line between voluntary donation and donation for gain. It is considering permitting egg donations to family and relatives, or to a specifically designated recipient. A committee on embryonic cell research under the National Bioethics Committee is reportedly pushing for guidelines that would legalize a certain amount of compensation for egg donors.

Kim Young-sik of the Ministry of Science and Technology said the ministry’s position was that all of Hwang’s research so far has been within the bounds of domestic law, adding the team would get its financial support according to plan.

(englishnews@chosun.com )