Clash of faiths: A South Korean stem-cell researcher bounces back from disgrace

MANY in the West agonise over the ethical questions raised by research on stem cells taken from human embryos. In South Korea, by contrast, the prevailing attitude has been _just get on with it_. Most South Koreans have reconciled themselves to the dilemmas implicit in the field, and that has created one of the most relaxed public environments on Earth for research on such cells.

So, get on with it is exactly what Hwang Woo-Suk did. Dr Hwang achieved cult status in South Korea by putting the country on the world's scientific map with his pioneering research at Seoul National University. Until a few days ago, he was also head of the newly opened World Stem Cell Hub in Seoul. Papers streamed impressively from his laboratory, and many western scientists felt he had stolen a march on them. Then an investigative television programme reported that some of the eggs used to create the embryos (or, to be more accurate, the pre-embryonic blastocysts) that provided the stem cells had themselves been provided by two of his junior researchers.
Although Dr Hwang...