New Wrinkle in the Korea Saga
At the time that things were about to unravel with revelations by Gerald Schatten that Hwang Woo-suk's labs had paid donors for eggs and perhaps taken eggs from subordinate scientists, it is now alleged that Schatten - who 'blew the whistle' on the whole matter - was negotiating for a share in at least one patent related to the work of Hwang's lab. Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition), which is now part of my perverse Korean reading obsession, reports this morning that the matter involves as well a request by Schatten to serve as chair of the world stem cell bank. Text of the story:Prof. Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh demanded to share a patent for stem cell cloning technology developed by geneticist Hwang Woo-suk and his team, press reports said Monday. Hwang and his team deny the report. Schatten recently ended his collaboration with Hwang citing ethical flaws in occyte procurement for an earlier project.
The U.S edition of the JoongAng Ilbo reported Monday that Schatten demanded 50 percent of the patent for technology cloning tailored stem cells for terminally ill patients early last month. He also asked Hwang to give him the chairmanship of the World Stem Cell Foundation and to allow several U.S scientists to sit on the foundation’s board. The paper said Hwang rejected the request, saying the stem cell research was a national asset and he was not in a position to give out stakes in the patent.
However, Prof. Lee Byung-choen, a member of Hwang’s team, said he heard of no such demand and Hwang did not mention it. Government officials involved in the research also said they had no knowledge of it. Prior to this week’s Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Science and Technology Minister Oh Myung told reporters he had not been briefed about the demand and Prof. Hwang did not discuss the issue with the government. Health and Welfare Minister Kim Geun-tae and presidential policy aide Kim Byung-jun also denied knowledge of the demand.
Wang Sang-ha of Seogang University, Seoul National University Hospital’s legal adviser, said Schatten made the demand while discussing the establishment of a stem cell hub network in the U.S. with Hwang. He confirmed Lee had no knowledge of the U.S professor’s request.
Another member of Hwang’s team said Schatten did not make the demand officially. “We intend to maintain good relations with Prof. Schatten for international joint stem cell research,” he said. “We are embarrassed by the report since it gives the impression we took issue with Prof. Schatten’s demand to put the blame on him.”
The most likely interpretation is that Schatten did informally ask for a share of the patent but Hwang did not officially discuss the issue with his team and the government. Schatten has not commented on the allegation.
Throwing tar at the whistleblower? The whistleblower has no clothes? This all reinforces the point we've made particularly in the Times-Union column that international regulation must begin with unambiguous rules concerning the conduct of scientists in stem cell research, and the U.S. simply must lead in that effort, given that our nation controls most of the intellectual property and houses most of the leading scientists in the world and is home to the key regulatory agency that will set the standards that define access for any of these therapies to the all-important US market. Otherwise we will watch in awe as one crazy scandal like this after another unfolds on international television. And the answer to this is not for the World Stem Cell Bank to hire bioethicists - it is for the NAS group and others to step up to the plate right now to propose that international standards for scientific integrity and clinical research be adopted voluntarily by the leaders of all major stem cell programs - and indeed insist that enrollment in such coalition be requisite to any relationship that entails funding from state based stem cell funding programs.
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are there any anthropologists around here who might have something interesting to say about the link between korean stem cells and discourses about national identity?
- by on Nov 29, 2005 at 3:40 PM | link
I don't think any US anthropologists yet have done research on the science and politics of stem cells in Korea. I was told some Korean science studies scholars did conduct social studies of stem cell research in their countries, but as far as I know, none of them were published in English.
- by ... on Nov 29, 2005 at 10:11 PM | link
The following newspaper article from the International Herald Tribune is perhaps the most balanced piece on the current Korean situation.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/28/news/korea.php
- by Intl' Herald Tribute on Nov 30, 2005 at 12:03 AM | link
In Korean fervor for tainted scientist, more harm than good? / By Choe Sang-Hun and James Brooke The New York Times, International Herald Tribune / TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2005 / SEOUL Days after his televised fall from grace, Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean cloning pioneer, re-emerged Monday as a national hero as the country rallied around him in an unusual outpouring of sympathy and nationalistic sentiment. / Amid this extraordinary display of support, the emerging issue for some scientists here was whether the enthusiasm of South Koreans for their star scientist would prove beneficial or detrimental to the country's reputation as an emerging presence in advanced scientific research. / Hwang was last seen in public Thursday, when he held a nationally televised news conference and apologized for ethical breaches in work that has made him one of the leading scientists in the field of stem cell research. Since then, South Koreans have called for his reinstatement, regarding him as a patriot too harshly punished by biased media and Western ethical standards. / More than 1,000 women have volunteered to donate their eggs for Hwang's research. Over the weekend, people stood in a drizzling rain holding candles and praying for Hwang's return. Companies have canceled advertisements on a local TV network that criticized Hwang's ethical decisions. / At an "I love Hwang Woo Suk" Web site, which is visited by tens of thousands of people daily, his photo is decorated with the rose of Sharon, the South Korean national flower. The site opens with a melancholic song that commemorates Koreans who fought and died for freedom from Japanese colonial rule. It declares Hwang as "the pride of Korea." / Whether the 53-year-old scientist, known for his savvy public relations skills, intended it or not, he has whipped up a so-called Hwang Woo Suk syndrome. It is a phenomenon that critics say is "irrational" and could do more harm than good in helping the country regain credibility from the international scientific community. / "We will make sure that Dr. Hwang will get enough eggs as long as his research continues," said Kim Yi Hyun, a 47-year-old leader of the campaign to collect donated eggs for Hwang, who has said he would eventually return to his research. Kim and her two daughters, 22 and 20, recently signed up to donate their eggs. / Hong Na Kyung, another donor candidate, said she was "proud we are up in front" in stem cell research and that "if we all support the research together, I think we could succeed more quickly." / If the national fervor reflects South Koreans' yearning for a hero at a time of economic and political uncertainty, critics warned it also mirrors a growing tendency in the country to invoke nationalistic sentiments to resist outside scrutiny of its ways. On Sunday, the South Korean president, Roh Moo Hyun, warned that the campaign for Hwang had become too "one-sided." / Hwang first rose to national fame in 1999 when he created a cloned cow. In 2004, he stunned the world by announcing that he had cloned a human embryo and harvested stem cells from it. In May, he announced that he had cloned stem cells that were genetic matches of patients - a breakthrough in the quest to find cures for diabetes and other diseases. In August, he revealed the first cloned dog, Snuppy. / But his fame appeared to be fading last Thursday, when he admitted, after repeated denials, that many of the eggs he used in his 2004 study had come from women who received financial compensation and that two junior researchers on his team had donated eggs, a practice widely considered unethical. American colleagues began distancing themselves from him. Hwang expressed deep regret and resigned from a research institute he founded. / Things have since taken a turn, however. For his supporters, Hwang embodied South Korea's dream of joining the ranks of countries that boast original technology, casting off the image of a country that copies goods developed first by countries like Japan. / Hwang's supporters compared the recent offers to donate eggs to the "gold drive" of 1997-98, when South Koreans joined a national campaign to sell their gold trinkets to help the economy overcome the Asian financial crisis. / On Saturday evening, 50 people gathered before MBC, a local TV station that aired a program lambasting Hwang's ethical decisions. The demonstrators included people in wheel chairs who said Hwang was their "only hope" for finding cures for their spinal cord injuries. Many said Hwang was victimized by Western standards. / "If Hwang stops his research, it will only please foreigners who wanted to catch up," said Kang Chon Kyu, 47, a banker. / But critics said Monday that South Korea had invited the problem by encouraging Hwang's headlong charge into controversial stem cell research while hardly taking note of the ethical debates that have deterred the research in countries like the United States. / Cho Yi Yeo Wool, an editor of a feminist women's magazine here, said, "The campaign to collect eggs is grotesque and bizarre." And, said Koo Young Mo, a professor of medical ethics at Ulsan University, "there are too many unanswered questions." / Choe Sang-Hun reported for the International Herald Tribune and James Brooke reported for The New York Times. Lee Su-Hyun of The New York Times contributed reporting from Seoul.
- by Intl' Herald Tribute on Nov 30, 2005 at 12:03 AM | link