South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said in a TV interview that he tried to talk junior scientists at his lab out of donating their own eggs for research, responding to the latest allegations over ethics violations that have plunged his groundbreaking work into controversy.
In the report late on Tuesday, the MBC television network also said it obtained documents from Hwang's lab showing possibly hundreds of human eggs had been bought for Hwang's research. The egg-buying wouldn't have been illegal at the time, but Hwang has previously insisted all eggs he used were given by donors enthusiastic to see his work proceed.
Hwang has gained worldwide attention for his breakthroughs, such as cloning the world's first human embryos and extracting stem cells from them. But recent controversy surrounding Hwang has prompted his collaborators, including University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten, to drop out of an ambitious international cloning project announced last month that aims to find treatments for incurable diseases.
Hwang has vehemently denied the allegations, saying all the eggs he used for his research were donated voluntarily in line with government guidelines. In the report on Tuesday, Hwang admitted junior scientists consulted with him about donating their own eggs for research, but he said he persuaded them not to do so.
"I was very moved," Hwang told MBC. "But in fear of possible misunderstanding, I persuaded them on several occasions it is better to work with what we have even if there aren't enough" eggs.
However, he admitted he didn't check with the researchers to confirm they hadn't donated their eggs later.
MBC showed an interview purporting to be one of Hwang's female scientists -- unnamed and with her image obscured -- but she said she wouldn't comment on the issue until Hwang made an official comment following an internal investigation at his lab.
Repeated calls to Hwang went unanswered yesterday and officials at his lab said they couldn't comment.
According to documents MBC said it obtained from Hwang's lab, more than 600 eggs were bought for research. One of Hwang's researchers at Seoul National University was also on the list of egg donors at Mizmedi Hospital, which provided eggs to the lab.
Roh Sung-il, chairman of the board at Mizmedi Hospital, revealed on Monday that he paid 1.5 million won (US$1,400) each to some 20 women in late 2002 to obtain their eggs for research -- contradicting his earlier remarks that none of the bought eggs were used for research.
Roh told reporters he paid for the eggs because there weren't enough voluntary donors, and said Hwang hadn't known about the payments that came out of his own pocket.
The payments weren't illegal at the time. But in January, South Korea enacted a law banning commercial trading of human eggs.
Collecting viable human eggs is crucial for embryonic stem-cell research, which involves cloning embryos to extract stem cells, the master cells that can grow into all kinds of tissues in the body and are seen as a potential source of replacement tissue for people with a variety of ailments.
To do that, a human embryo must first be cloned from a patient's DNA, which is inserted into an unfertilized egg to produce the embryo.
Obtaining eggs is a problem for researchers, especially considering how inefficient cloning technology currently is. South Korean researchers last year used 242 eggs from 16 donors to yield just one cloned embryo, which was destroyed after several days to extract stem cells.
Despite the controversy, South Koreans' support for Hwang's work remains strong.
A private foundation was launched this week to promote egg donations and more than 100 members of Hwang's Internet fan club have volunteered their eggs.
As the latest report aired on MBC, the network's Web bulletin board was filled with angry viewer messages denouncing the broadcaster for acting against national interests.
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