Once Truth is Discovered, Hwang Speculates Separated Organizations will Rejoin

On November 15 (local time), Hwang Woo-seok, a professor of the Veterinary Medicine College of Seoul National University (SNU) who is visiting the U.S. to receive the biotechnology award from the World Technology Network (WTN), said, “I will announce the results after thoroughly investigating the ethical controversy over the extracting of egg cells in the research of human cloned embryonic stem cells.”

Professor Hwang noted the above matter to reporters at the San Francisco International Airport that afternoon. However, Hwang didn’t mention anything about the details of the investigation.

Hwang’s research team is reportedly collecting local and foreign reference materials in order to release the results next week and will be authorized by experts prior to the public announcement.

Regarding the Pacific Fertility Center (PFC) in San Francisco and Children’s Neurobiological Solution Foundation (CNSF) that declared their withdrawal from the “World Stem Cell Hub (WSCH)” after Dr. Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh announced his separation from the work with Hwang, Hwang stated that once the truth is revealed, his team will be able to work again with the above organizations.

Hwang won the WTN biotechnology award at San Francisco’s City Hall. The WTN, which has members from 60 countries, awards a technology innovator in 20 different fields each year. Hwang became the sixth winner from the biotechnology category, and four out of the previous five winners were Nobel Prize laureates.

Meanwhile, American stem cell research experts are saying that the split between Hwang and Schatten is tragic.

Bioethics Professor Hilary Bok at Johns Hopkins University said, “If an embryo is a life, then a living cancer cell is also a life, and the treatment that involves killing cancer cells could be a mass killing,” and emphasized that embryonic stem cell research is needed.

Jong sik Kong Ho-Gab Lee kong@donga.com gdt@donga.com