GMW: Faked data, lack of ethics, cover-ups and lies in stem cell and cloning sca

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GMW: Faked data, lack of ethics, cover-ups and lies in stem

cell and cloning scandal

" GM WATCH " <info

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:12:53 GMT

 

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Faked data, unethical egg procurement, cover-ups, lies: Stem cell and

cloning scandal highlights need for real regulation

GENETIC CROSSROADS, Dec 15 2005

NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER FOR GENETICS AND SOCIETY

http://www.genetics-and-society.org/newsletter/index.html#hwang

 

A scandal at the world's foremost stem cell and cloning research

laboratory has mushroomed in recent weeks, with Woo-suk Hwang now

admitting

that his team's much-heralded breakthrough, published in Science last

June, was in fact fabricated. A senior researcher in Hwang's laboratory

reports that Hwang ordered a junior member of the research team to " fake

the stem cell data " and later to try to cover up the original

fabrication. Hwang has also now admitted, despite earlier denials,

that he

violated ethical guidelines in collecting human eggs for his research.

 

The scandal starkly demonstrates the need for strong and enforceable

regulations to protect both the health of women who provide eggs for

research and the integrity of the scientific endeavor itself. Voluntary

guidelines such as those proposed for US scientists are clearly

inadequate.

 

The recent events began to unfold in October, with news of ethical

misconduct and legal violations in obtaining eggs from South Korean

women.

Over subsequent weeks, Hwang first lied and then confessed about

ethical breaches in collecting eggs for his research; an international

stem

cell consortium that he had announced collapsed; a member of his

research team was investigated for illegally buying women's eggs; and

Hwang

has reportedly asked Science to retract his article.

 

In October, cloning and stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk announced

the creation of the World Stem Cell Foundation. This international

consortium was to have been based in South Korea, with satellite

offices in

San Francisco and London where women's eggs were to be collected and

other preliminary steps in the cloning and stem cell work conducted.

 

In early November, Gerald Schatten, a University of Pittsburgh-based

researcher collaborating with Hwang, withdrew from the consortium, saying

he believed Hwang had engaged in ethical misconduct obtaining eggs. The

Pacific Fertility Center, which had been planning on providing eggs for

the San Francisco satellite, pulled out of the deal two days later.

Shortly thereafter, Hwang resigned as head of the foundation. He admitted

that two of his junior researchers had provided eggs for the research,

and that he had denied it a year earlier in order, he said, to protect

their privacy.

 

In addition, Roh Sung-il, a prominent member of Hwang's research team,

conceded that he had paid 16 women the equivalent of $1,443 each out of

his own pocket for their eggs for Hwang's research lab. The consent

form the women signed said they had received " no financial payment. " Only

a few days earlier, Roh had admitted to using illegally traded eggs in

his fertility clinic, despite a newly-enacted Korean bioethics law

prohibiting the commercial sale of eggs and sperm. Three of the women

interviewed on South Korean television said that they agreed to

provide eggs

because they were in dire financial straits; two of them said they had

not been fully informed about the potential risks

 

While international criticism of Hwang's ethical breaches has been

strong, many in South Korea have rallied to support him. A thousand women

have pledged their eggs for his research, and supporters held a

candlelight vigil in his honor and denounced MBC TV, the network that

helped

expose the scandal. According to the New York Times, " To many, the

backlash reflects a growing tendency in [south Korea] to invoke

nationalistic

sentiments to resist outside scrutiny. "

 

A few South Korean voices have presented a different perspective. Cho

Yi Yeo Wool, editor of a Korean feminist magazine, raised concerns about

the commodification of women's eggs, remarking, " The campaign to

collect eggs is grotesque and bizarre...Is a human egg some kind of gold

trinket or mineral that you can dig out from a mountainside? "

 

Just this morning, a co-author of the Science paper admitted to a

television journalist that Hwang pressured the researchers to falsify the

data, and that at least nine of the eleven stem cell lines were fakes.

This colleague said that Hwang has asked Science to retract his key

publication from earlier this year. Earlier this week, Schatten wrote a

letter to Science, requesting that his name be removed as principal

investigator of the article because it had come to his attention that

some of

the results may be fraudulent.

 

Many questions of fact and interpretation remain. Among them are these:

 

For Hwang, Schatten, and their research team:

 

*Who in Hwang's lab and among the co-authors of the Science article

knew about the faked data and the ethical breaches in obtaining eggs, and

when?

 

*What prevented those who knew from coming forward?

 

*What was the strategy behind announcing a " World Stem Cell Hub, " when

at least some of the players knew that the basis on which they were

claiming to build it was untrue?

 

For the scientific community:

 

*What role have exaggerations and over-promising about stem cell and

cloning research, and competition based on the prospect of celebrity and

commercial returns from it, played in this situation?

 

*What role do the difficulties and risks to women of obtaining eggs for

cloning research play in this situation?

 

*Given that investigative journalists, not scientists, uncovered the

falsified data, how can the senior US and British scientists who asked

the media to refrain from questioning the " validity of the experiments "

justify their request?

 

For all of us:

 

*Now that it is clear that the voluntary guidelines for embryonic stem

cell research recommended by lead scientific bodies in the US are

inadequate, how can we move to put in place enforceable regulations that

will protect women and allow legitimate embryonic stem cell research to

advance?

 

Related Articles:

[links at

http://www.genetics-and-society.org/newsletter/index.html#hwang ]

 

Opinion: Nigel M. de S. Cameron and M. L. Tina Stevens " What California

can learn from Korean cloning scandal, " San Francisco Chronicle

(December 13)

 

" Clash of faiths: A South Korean stem-cell researcher bounces back

from disgrace, " The Economist (December 1)

 

Editorial: " Stem-cell probe needed, " Nature (November 30)

 

Editorial: " Oocytes for sale, " Sacramento Bee (November 25)

 

 

 

 

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