Hwang's tame bioethicist has been caught up in the financial scandal, too. Presidential adviser for science and technology Park Ky-young, a botanist, has admitted that Hwang gave her $350,000 to study the social and ethical implications of her research, even though she was hardly an expert in bioethics. She was also listed as a co-author on Hwang's 2004 cloning paper even though she had done nothing. The bioethical baksheesh may have helped to clinch government support for the cloning research.
And in the US, the media is asking whether a recent $16.1 million Federal grant to Hwang's American colleague Gerald Schatten should be reviewed. The grant proposal for an ambitious stem cell project was based on Hwang's fraudulent research. Schatten and his partners in the project described their own work as "heroic, demanding, yet feasible and essential" in documents obtained by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review under the Freedom of Information Act. ~ Chosun Ilbo, Jan 17; New Scientist, Feb 6; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Feb 22
One overlooked proposal in President Bush's State of the Union speech on January 31 centred on cloning: "I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale." Sandwiched as it was between a farewell to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and a call for higher ethical standards in Congress, it was overshadowed by the war in Iraq and America's addiction to oil.
But now three members of the President's Council on Bioethics have sparred in the media over Bush's defence of embryos. In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Michael Gazzaniga, a neuroscientist at Dartmouth, suggested that Bush's "unwavering opposition" to embryonic stem cell research might have indirectly been responsible for Hwangate. It might have kindled too much ambition in the Koreans and too much eagerness in the editors of scientific journals.
He also described the President's remarks as "a serious mischaracterisation" of embryo research. In his view, an embryo is better described as "a bunch of molecules in a lab" or "that thing in a Petri dish". In no way is an embryo "a beautifully nurtured and loved human who has been shaped by a lifetime of experiences and discovery".
Shortly thereafter ethicist Gilbert Meilaender, of Valparaiso University and Robert George, of Princeton, used the National Review, an influential conservative magazine, as a platform to scold Gazzaniga for a lack of "rigour and seriousness". In their eyes, many American scientists have abandoned scientific objectivity and have been shamelessly partisan in their advocacy of embryo research. Hwangate had exposed this political commitment and forced them to blame Bush instead of "their own agendas or hubris".
They also asked how Gazzaniga could account for the humanity of newborns, [of] those afflicted by retardation, and [of] those suffering from dementia", since they do not have memories, hopes and loves that make them human.
Clearly there is a nearly unbridgeable gap on some fundamental issues amongst bioethicists and scientists. The editor of the American Journal of Bioethics, Glen McGee, fumed on his blog that this stupid, patronising nonsense employed by the neocons" on the bioethics council was merely "pro-life on stilts". The chance of a bioethical détente looks decidedly embryonic. ~ New York Times, Feb 16; National Review, Feb 21; blog.bioethics.net, Feb 22
HUNDREDS MARCH IN UK TO SUPPORT ANIMAL RESEARCH
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Oxford on Sunday to march in support of a £18 biomedical research laboratory. Work on the lab had been suspended for nearly two years because the original builder pulled out after intimidation by animal rights extremists. The new builders work under strict security and their workers wear face masks. "This is a historic day," physiology researcher John Stein told the crowd. "We are drawing a line in the sand." According to the Guardian, many researchers stayed away for fear of reprisals. Professor Tipu Aziz, a neurosurgeon, said, "This country has thousands of researchers paralysed by fear. That's a travesty of democracy."
Although Oxford says that 98% of the animals at the research facility will be rodents, animal welfare demonstrators feel that it is immoral to experiment on any animals. One group, the Animal Liberation Front, has a history of threats and violence to back up its concerns.
Exasperated students and academics now appear to have had enough. "Medical research involving animals is essential to medical progress", says Iain Simpson, spokesman for the new student group Pro-Test. "And while diseases such as cancer and AIDS continue to kill millions, we are not just justified in continuing with animal research; we have a moral responsibility to do so." ~ BBC, Feb 22; Scotland on Sunday, Feb 26; Guardian, Feb 27
ASSISTED REPRODUCTION IN BRIEF
A 62-year-old woman who has had 3 husbands, 11 children, 20 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren has given birth to her 12th child with the help of IVF. Janise Wulf, who has been blind from birth, wanted her latest husband, aged 48, to experience a family. They already have a 3-year-old son, but she did not want him to grow up as an only child. The couple live in -- where else? -- northern California. ~ Guardian, Feb 23
A well-known US IVF practice, Genetics & IVF, is running display ads in a free daily newspaper owned by the Washington Post which offer up to US$50,000 for eggs from women aged 21 to 32. Donors can also get a referral bonus of between $500 and $1,500 if they persuade a friend to donate. The eggs will be "donated" to infertile couples. ~ Genetic Crossroads, Feb 23; GIVF Cryobank website
Eggs in India are cheaper than in Washington. Women in Gujarat are making a tidy little business out of surrogacy. According to a local TV station, many childless couples [are] going to Gujarat from around the world in search of surrogate mothers". It spoke with one woman, Tejalben, who has three daughters and a daughter-in-law who have all been surrogates. Customers come from all over the world -- the UK, US, Canada, and South Africa as well as India. The going rate for surrogacy is about US$2,250. ~ NDTV, Feb 22
British regulators are to give a green light for women to donate their eggs for use in stem cell research. To avoid abuses like those which occurred in the Korean lab of Hwang Woo-suk, female researchers will be forbidden to donate their own eggs for an employer's projects, but they will be able to donate them to other labs. Anyone would be eligible, but only after counselling to determine whether she was acting freely and without coercion. Critics of egg donation point out that it exposes women to potentially serious health hazards and even, in very exceptional circumstances, death. ~ Times Online, Feb 14
The leading IVF industry body in Australia, the Fertility Society of Australia, is planning to run an advertising campaign warning women of the consequences of delaying motherhood. It will emphasise that age, as well as smoking, chlamydia and obesity can make becoming pregnant difficult. ~ Age, Feb 23
Six out of every hundred babies in Denmark are born with the help of assisted reproduction technologies, according to the latest statistics-- a rate which is probably the highest in the world. About 4% are the result of IVF techniques and the rest of artificial insemination. ~ International Journal of Andrology
IN BRIEF: Roy Meadow; prostates
Roy Meadow -- A British specialist in cot death has won an appeal against a verdict of serious professional misconduct. Professor Sir Roy Meadow's testimony about the probability of cot death helped to send three women to jail for murdering their children. However, the British High Court found that the highly respected Professor Meadow had merely erred in misunderstanding and misinterpreting statistics. ~ London Telegraph, Feb 18
Prostates -- Melbourne scientists have grown a prostate from human embryonic stem cells in mice. In a paper published in Nature Methods, researchers at the Monash Institute of Medical Research described how they combined hESCs with mouse prostate cells and implanted them in mice. "We've now got a model [on which] we can easily test potentially new clinical therapies for prostate disease," said Dr Renae Taylor. Monash press release, Feb 23; ABC, Feb 23
Reproductive technology is seldom viewed as a industry, but for better or worse, it is. Now a Harvard Business School professor has written a book outlining how it works and how it makes money. In The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception, Debora L. Spar claims that the fertility industry turns over US$3 billion in the US alone for techniques ranging from simple artificial insemination to top-drawer pre- implantation genetic diagnosis.