Korean Job Discussion Forums

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a0b2oqLUugvA&refer=top_world_news

normally, i wouldn't be so gleeful at this guy's fall, but i was getting tired of my girlfriend telling me what a genius he was and how western scientists were making up lies about him because they're jealous. and i wanted to scoop real reality.

anyways, for the people too lazy to hit the link:

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I don't really understand why it matters where he gets the eggs.

PS) My girlfriend told me she might donate her eggs. She may have been joking though.

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

Egg donation is not like sperm donation. I've heard it's pretty uncomfortable. Thats why they pay a lot more for it. I don't get what the big deal is... possibly they consider it a kind of embezzlement -- research funds being paid to members of the research team -- but that doesn't seem to be what the article is implying. Anyway, you can't trust American journalists to report on ethics and stem cells in the same article. They are screwed up in the head about this whole topic, and so are their readers.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I think this is too bad.

First, there was the scandal about DJ's visit to Pyongyang. After winning the Nobel for it, it turned out he paid a pile of money to arrange the meeting.

Then there was the enormous success of getting to the semis in the World Cup, only to have the Italians and Spanish complain that the officiating was not up to snuff.

Now, someone makes a world-class breakthrough in cloning and it turns out that is marred by an ethics question.

I know they teach ethics in school, and yes, I know half the students sleep through the class and then cheat on the final...

But it is a shame that every step Korea makes (it seems) in a world-class direction gets yanked back by a failure in ethics. I prefer to think that the hakwon wangjangnims are abberations, but it is harder and harder to keep that view.

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

NOt surprised this happened. They interviewed him on CNN. He claims that he tried to persuade the women from not donating but that ultimately he couldn't stop them. Personally I don't buy that. I'm quite happy to see this blow up in his face.

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

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200511/kt2005112419170411780.htm

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

I'm just wondering when they can lay this at the feet of Apollo Ono...

Donating eggs isn't a simple little thing. You're basically drugged up for a month on hormone pills that make you release about a dozen eggs. You spend a month puking your guts out. In the USA a young woman can basically get a year of free tuition in return for an egg donation. Oddly few young women go this route as when the truth of the procedure is made relevant to them, it's not worth a month of suffering.

While someone may volunteer to undergo this rather horrid experience, you don't want to compel your female employees to "donate".That's mostly where the ethics come in. Are the female employees undergoing this torture out of their own free will or are they being coerced.

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

according to hwang they volunteered repeatedly but he originally turned them down. at this point in the interview i started to express my contempt and missed what he said for a few seconds. then he said something along the lines of i couldn't stop them.
He makes the lab assists sound like national heroes sacrificing part of themselves for the good of the experiment.

Kimchieluver · Joined: 02 Mar 2005

I have too agree with mindmetoo. Schooled in the Catholic education system they neglected to tell us how difficult the egg donor process was. They just simply referred to the scientific term "invitro fertilization". We had to sit through hours and hours of gory abortion films to see that the fetus actually does feel pain and that the mother sometimes really regrets her decision. Yet when it came to "invitro fertilization" it was just a simple lab experiment with a hit or miss result. I have not lost the faith but I can see why all these people who do donate are compensated financially or spiritually for their efforts.

my oh-ship won take on things.

Kimchieluver · Joined: 02 Mar 2005

Or maybe I am agreeing with Joe... that kinda hurts.

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

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

sometimes ethics cant play a part in making life better for mankind!
some pawns need to be sacrificed for making it better for all mankind!
SAD but true! thats where man has come!! if you ask me.. we should have all still been living like the INDIANS! but mans greed is to strong an emotion!
so not only will we destroy this land. we will destroy each other with it!

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

You guys who are "agreeing" with me don't seem to get my meaning. I take Dr. Hwang's side in this case. Bloomberg, like all American media, seems to think cloning and all related science is evil and should be controlled by all kinds of absurd "ethics" rules drawn up by the Pope. They feel so sure of this position that they write a whole article about an "unethical" researcher without even stating what he did that was unethical. So far all we've heard is that he paid his egg donors, which seems to me like a perfectly honorable thing to do!