Korean Job Discussion Forums

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

I know what kind of personal power is wielded by Korean professors over their graduate students, and its extensive. A professor can just wake a student up in the middle of the night and have him go fetch a cup of coffee for him, if the professor wants to. To ask a young student to donate her body of his research would, if it's true, be a gross ethical breach. It makes me angry just thinking about it.

Len8 · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Location: Kyungju

Apparently Time magazine are nominating the cover about a dog being cloned at the Seoul University Center as the cover of the year

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

i am not surprised at this at all.

I"ve seen that guy on tv and he looks less honest than a used car sales man.

kidcharlemagne · Joined: 29 Mar 2004

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

Well, the ethics are questionable for many reasons, some of which have already been discussed by other posters. Wouldn't she have needed to take fertility drugs for them to collect over 400 ova? Last I heard, fertility drugs greatly increase the chances of developping cancer.

desultude · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:55 am Post subject:

I've also been concerned about this all along. Korea is charging headlong into things like stem cell research and "ubiquitious technology" with little practice in things like individual rights and privacy rights, as well as other ethical considerations. Animal rights are not even on the agenda.

This is from the Nov. 14th Timeasia:

"It's just past dawn on a Saturday morning and Hwang Woo Suk, the founder of World Stem Cell Hub, is clad in surgical scrubs. He stands next to a full-term pregnant sow suspended upside down from the ceiling by a steel cable. "Ready"? he shouts to his operating team. Hwang makes a 30cm slash in the sow's belly, thrusts in his arm right up to the elbow and withdraws the sows womb, and within it, a shivering black cloned baby pig."

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

And these comments from a reader of The Korea Times by someone calling themself "TrinityAC":

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

Oh, I'm all for his research. My dad, who's a retired scientist, has brought me to know better than to accuse scientists of playing god. We would have never ceased to believe that diseases are a form of divine retribution if the ethics of science remained synonymous to Judeo-Christian morality. But, Harvesting 400 ova from one donor created unnecessary risks for the donor. I'm just not as easily swayed by the romanticised image of the pioneering scientist as the donor was, maybe.

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

yeah, my korean friend told me that Schatten teamed up with Hwang just to steal his research and then fabricated the ethics charges as an excuse to drop him and take credit for all his work. this is gonna be a real interesting story to watch.

frankly speaking · Joined: 23 Oct 2005

First of all, it is ridiculous to say that Schatten just teamed up to steal trade secrets. He is a pioneer in his own right.

Secondly, the ethics in question are not those of embryonic stem cell research but those of how the eggs were harvested. Now some posters have said that US does not do embryonic stem cell research; that is incorrect. There are private companies in US doing embryonic stem cell research. They just don't get governmental funding. When Bush came into office he put a freeze on all further embryonic research. I forget the exact number but there are some embryonic stem cell lines that are approved for governmental funding because they were allready funded by the Clinton administration.

Most of the researchers agree that using left over embryos from IVF is ethical. I think here the issue is that the eggs harvested were not done to proper guidelines.

No one argues that Korea is a leader in cloning and stem cell research, but they are one of many. Even the Philipines has done equally remarkable progress. Korea is 3rd or 4th ranked in the world for the number of embryo stem cell lines . There was a rather extensive article in National Geographic, July (?) about the debate. Definately, worth the read.

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

I just read that they in fact only collected 242 ova for the research from 16 donors. It is rumored one of the donors was part of the research team--which Hwang denies. Even if a researcher did donate some ova, which brings to question the motives involved if other donors were available, it seems like a pretext to shut them down.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

SNU panel says Hwang fabricated human stem cell research results
A panel from South Korea's top university investigating the veracity of the country's cloning pioneer's past study said Friday Hwang fabricated the results of his human stem cell research, calling it "damaging to the foundation of science."
Yonhap News (Dec. 23, 2005)
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20051223/410100000020051223110245E6.html

bellum99 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: don't need to know

Truth is that he lied about everything to steal a lot of money. He just quit Seoul National University and he may go to jail.

What a moron...why did he have to say he was so far ahead of the western scientists. If he had less of an ego he could still be taking the money.

igotthisguitar · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:30 am Post subject: