blog.bioethics.net

Editorial Retraction

The following notice regarding the article by Jung, K. W., and I. Hyun, "Oocyte and somatic cell procurement for stem cell research: The South Korean experience," published in The American Journal of Bioethics 6(1): W19-W22, was released Tuesday January 31st at bioethics.net and will appear in AJOB 6(1):W33.:

The January/February 2006 issue of The American Journal of Bioethics contains a report from Drs. Insoo Hyun and Kyu Won Jung describing in detail the oocyte and somatic cell donation consent procedures developed for the stem cell research program of Seoul National University (Hyun and Jung 2006). Drs. Hyun and Jung report that they were led to believe that these consent procedures were used by Dr. Woo-Suk Hwang and his colleagues to enroll all of the oocyte and somatic cell donors who provided the research materials reportedly utilized in the derivation of eleven patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines (Hwang et al. 2005).

Following the acceptance and online publication of that manuscript, allegations about the veracity of the research performed by Dr. Hwang’s team surfaced. On January 10, 2006, the committee empowered by Seoul National University to look into these allegations concluded that the data published by Dr. Hwang and his colleagues were fabricated (Investigation Committee Report 2006). A similar report, issued by Korea’s National Board of Bioethics (KNBB) following their investigation of the Hwang lab’s oocyte donation procedures, raised additional concerns about the consent process. For example, Dr. Hwang was found to have used a far greater number of oocytes than originally claimed in the Science article. The KNBB committee also found that a number of egg donors suffered side effects from the oocyte donation process, and concluded that the oocyte donors were neither given sufficient information about the risks of donation nor were they asked to sign the consent forms approved by the Institutional Review Board.

It now appears likely that the oocyte and somatic cell donation consent procedures described by Hyun and Jung, which, they report, were developed through what they described as close collaboration with Dr. Hwang and his team, were not used for donor screening and enrollment in the research that gave rise to the now discredited Science paper (Hwang et al. 2005). Neither Dr. Hyun nor Dr. Jung have been accused of any misconduct with respect to the contents of this paper, but the Editors of The American Journal of Bioethics nevertheless believe that a retraction of their manuscript is warranted. Both authors have agreed to a retraction.

Glenn McGee PhD

Editor-in-Chief

References

Investigation Committee Report, Seoul National University, 10 January 2006.

Korean National Board of Bioethics, 30 December 2006. Hwang, W. S., S. I. Roh, B. C. Lee, et al. 2005. Patient-specific embryonic stem cells derived from human SCNT blastocysts. Science 308: 1777-1783.

Jung, K. W., and I. Hyun. 2006. Oocyte and somatic cell procurement for stem cell research: The South Korean experience. American Journal of Bioethics 6(1): W19-W22.