Before I discuss today's subject, I just wanted to express a heartfelt thank you to the many people who wrote in response to a lovely email sent to me by Brenda Hanson which we reprinted last week. (See "Doing the Right Thing and Finding Meaning as a Result"-- www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/November05/nv111005.html)

Brenda's wonderfully moving email was in response to a couple of columns I had written about the ugliness of aborting babies prenatally diagnosed to be less than "perfect." Brenda told the story of her daughter, Sarah, in a way that uplifted and inspired many readers of TN&V. Thank you, Brenda, and thanks to all those who pledged solidarity with Brenda and all other parents of special needs children.

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In case you missed it, over the weekend the reputation of Woo Suk Hwang, the Korean scientist, known worldwide for being the first to grow stem cells from cloned human embryos, took an enormous hit. According to the Washington Post, University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald P. Schatten said "that he will disengage from a recently launched collaboration with a team of world-renowned South Korean scientists because he is convinced that the lead Korean researcher had engaged in ethical breaches and lied to him about them."

Last year Woo Suk Hwang (of Seoul National University) became an international celebrity. Just last month Schatten announced a partnership with Hwang and scientists from the United States, Britain, and elsewhere to open the World Stem Cell Hub in Seoul. Their aim is to supply cloned embryonic stem cells to overseas labs.

However, Schatten's participation came to a crashing halt. Reportedly there were several ethical lapses at issue, having to do with the procurement of human eggs (oocytes) needed as part of the experiment to produce cloned embryos. These eggs are secured from women following a regime of hormone injection. Informed consent is required because there is a health risk involved.

The two-fold allegation deals with rumors, first reported last year by the journals Science and Nature, that a junior scientist in Hwang's lab provided the eggs. "That situation, if true, would be in violation of widely held ethics principles that preclude people in positions of authority from accepting egg donations from underlings," wrote the Post's Rick Weiss. "The rules are meant to prevent subtle -- or not-so-subtle -- acts of coercion."

In addition, further questions have arisen about whether she was paid for her role, or received any other benefits, according to the International Herald Tribune.

(The International Herald Tribune also reported that last week South Korean police said "they were investigating fertility clinics accused of using illegally traded human ova. One of the clinics was run by Roh Sung Il, who was among Hwang's 24 co-authors for the stem cell research released in May. Roh has denied supplying illegally harvested ova to Hwang. Park, the presidential aide, said there might have been commercial trade in human ova before the practice was formally banned early this year.")

Until recently Schatten said he believed Hwang's repeated denials of ethical improprieties. "But in a statement released by his university Saturday, Schatten said that last week 'information came to my attention suggesting that misrepresentations might have occurred relating to those oocyte donations.'"

Speaking to Weiss, Schatten said, "I now have information that leads me to believe he had misled me." He added, "My trust has been shaken. I am sick at heart. I am not going to be able to collaborate with Woo Suk."

Weiss reported that Schatten "will also announce his discovery of certain technical mistakes in a scientific paper he and Hwang had published together this year, though he added that he believes those errors were unintentional and did not represent evidence of scientific misconduct."

Whether this has any impact on the collaborations Hwang has initiated with many other scientists is an open question.