Editorial: Stem-cell probe needed

South Korea would benefit from investigating what went wrong in its leading stem-cell lab.

Last week, Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University finally admitted using eggs donated by graduate students and paid donors in his embryonic stem-cell research (see page 536). The admission raises pointed questions of the stem-cell research community worldwide and of the South Korean government and media. Each of these groups should be asking themselves why it has taken them so long to take this matter seriously

In the stem-cell research world beyond South Korea, the adverse publicity generated by Hwang's decision to resign as head of the World Stem Cell Hub should serve as a reminder _ as if one was really needed _ of the importance of transparent and stringent ethical behaviour by practitioners in this field.

Most of Hwang's international colleagues were slow to accept that anything was amiss in his laboratory. Even as the Korean authorities failed to properly investigate the allegations first made in this journal 18 months ago (Nature 429, 3; 2004), researchers seemed almost universally eager to establish fresh...