Seoul (AsiaNews) The Presidential Advisory Committee on Bioethics announced it will investigate how Hwang Woo-suk's research team acquired ova for stem cell research and decide whether the stem cell pioneer's research had any ethical and legal flaws according to domestic and global standards. Results will be announced on December 13.
On November 16, the therapeutic cloning pioneer quit as director of the World Stem Cell Hub and resigned from all other functions he held in other government and private organisations.
Hwang stepped down after US Professor Gerald Shatten, a former colleague from the University of Pittsburgh, accused him of wilfully using ovocytes donated under duress by two of his team female researchers, and not by volunteers as previously asserted.
Another 16 ova used for his research were donated by a South Korean hospital, which purchased them for US$ 11,500.
"We decided to review the research and apply global standard for bioethics,'' Yang Sam-sung, a lawyer and head of the committee, said.
His committee will ask Hwang's research team and related institutions to submit opinions and materials related to the research.
They include Mizmedi Hospital, which is accused of buying the ova; the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Seoul National University's veterinary medicine college; and Hanyang University Medical Center's IRB that approved Hwang's research.
"To reflect on the past and set up proper research ethics, the committee, which is the nation's top examination body, needs to make a final decision," Yang said.