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Data submitted by Prof. Hwang Woo-suk with an article on the purported
cloning of patient-specific stem cells to the magazine Science ¡°cannot
be regarded as simple mistakes but were an intentional fabrication by
means of inflating details of two stem cells into those of 11 stem
cells," a Seoul National University panel disclosed on Friday. Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan is said to have wept for several
minutes after saying in a Christmas interview, ¡°This case has brought
disgrace on the Korean people in the eyes of the international
community.¡± The public must feel much the same, to say nothing of
patients with incurable diseases, whose hearts beat faster, who sobbed
when Prof. Hwang told them research had entered a new stage and only a
flimsy door now separated them from a cure. On Dec. 16, Prof. Hwang swore the source technology to make
patient-specific stem cells exists, never mind that there were only a
few actual stem cells. Now the data have been revealed as a
fabrication; now we know that he was talking nonsense when he said his
stem cells died of contamination and that cells were made even after
the paper had been published. How can he now expect to get his hands on
research funds? Who would now propose joint research with him, which
journal would accept his papers, and what country would give him a
patent? The SNU panel should investigate a charge that as many as
1,200 ova were used up in the project, not 185 as Hwang claimed. It
should check the veracity of a 2004 paper on the first cloning of
embryonic stem cells and all suspicions involving the cloned cow,
BSE-resistant cloned cow and cloned dog Snuppy Hwang has taken credit
for. It must also discover how people who now say they made not the
slightest contribution to research were listed as co-authors of the
Science article, and why a junior researcher who is said to have
pioneered the ¡°squeezing¡± method for removing the nucleus from human
eggs received a puny monthly salary of a few hundred thousand won. Researcher Kim Seon-jong, who was seconded to the University
of Pittsburg, said in an interview with MBC¡¯s ¡°PD Dairy¡± his status was
so lowly that he was in no position utter the word ¡°fabrication¡± and
simply had to do what he was told. Such an authoritarian structure in
the team will have created an atmosphere where fair distribution of
credit was difficult and stopping abuses like the fabrications became
impossible. The Seoul National University investigation must expose such
backward practices where our scientists lag far behind global
standards. Only if the investigation is ruthless in its rigor will we
be able to find a new base to build a future from the pile of rubble
left behind by Hwang Woo-suk.
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