Debate rages over use of fresh stem cell eggs
By Shin Sung-Sik, Kang Ki-Heon, and Esther Chung,
Joongang Daily [South Korea]
| 05. 20. 2016
The use of fresh egg cells in stem cell research, banned in Korea for years, is being hotly debated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
The Bioethics and Safety Act forbids the use of fresh egg cells in stem cell research, more specifically in the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which can be used to create clones for reproductive and therapeutic purposes by removing the nucleus of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of a somatic cell.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning is asking for a policy revision whereby the use of fresh egg cells, voluntarily donated, would be allowed for further development in stem cell research.
The use of fresh eggs in SCNT was made illegal in Korea after 2005, when Hwang Woo-suk, a veterinarian and a former professor at Seoul National University, was found to have fabricated evidence and even bought human eggs for his stem-cell research, which was once regarded as a breakthrough in the science of cloning.
Hwang...
Related Articles
By Daphne O. Martschenko and Julia E. H. Brown, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 01.14.2026
There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement known as pronatalism looks to combat depopulation by encouraging people to have as many children as possible. But not just...
By Paula Siverino Bavio, BioNews | 01.12.2026
For more than ten years, gestational surrogacy in Uruguay existed in a state of legal latency: provided for by law, carefully regulated as an exception, yet without a single birth to make it real.
That situation changed with the arrival...
By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 01.08.2026
Scientists claim to have “rejuvenated” human eggs for the first time in an advance that they predict could revolutionise IVF success rates for older women.
The groundbreaking research suggests that an age-related defect that causes genetic errors in embryos could...
By Katherine Long, The Wall Street Journal | 12.27.2025
Nia Trent-Wilson owes $182,889.63 in medical bills for a baby that wasn’t hers.
In late 2021, she agreed to act as a surrogate through an agency that paired her with a gay couple from Washington, D.C. The terms were typical...
