Korean stem cell lie stirs up ethical debate

The flap highlights a dilemma: Is it wrong to pay women to donate eggs?

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Dec. 19, 2005.

A leading South Korean stem cell researcher's admission that he lied for more than two years about how his lab acquired human oocytes has halted a fledgling global collaboration and tossed new concerns into the U.S. ethical debate over stem cell research.

Hwang Woo-Suk, PhD -- a South Korean national hero for leading the research team that in May was the world's first to successfully clone a human embryo -- said last month that during a 2002-03 human egg-cell shortage his lab accepted eggs from two junior scientists and about 20 other women who each were paid the Korean equivalent of $1,400. Dr. Hwang said he wasn't aware of the questionable egg donations when they were made, and that once he found out he lied in order to protect the donors.

It is an internationally accepted research principle that junior scientists should not be allowed to donate eggs for fear that they could be pressured into doing so by superiors. Dr. Hwang's lab also had a policy barring payments to egg donors, and he had previously denied that any such payments were made. In January, South Korea passed a law banning any commerce in human ova. After the controversy, more than 1,000 women pledged their eggs for research.

Aside from putting the brakes on a fledgling U.S.-South Korean stem cell research collaboration, the South Korean egg-donation scandal has highlighted an issue that's largely flown under the radar in the U.S. ethical debate: Is compensating egg donors wrong?

Convincing women to donate eggs, as fertility clinics have long known, is difficult because the process is time-consuming, invasive and carries risks.