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WASHINGTON--Leon Kass is willing--reluctantly willing--to indulge a request. I have asked him to refresh our interview of several weeks ago by reflecting on the case of Hwang Woo Suk, the internationally celebrated South Korean researcher who recently admitted to fabricating cloned stem cells. Dr. Kass thinks that a decennial White House conference on aging might make for an equally timely news peg. Health and longevity; dementia and death; euthanasia and living wills; performance enhancement and life-prolonging genetic manipulations--these are the subjects that really engage the mind of this 66-year-old physician and ethicist (and former philosophy professor of mine). As for...

Korean TV station MBC Tuesday dealt another blow to the country’s cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk claiming he had forced his junior researcher to contribute eggs by using authorship as a carrot. MBC made the claim in its investigative program, ``PD Notebook,’’ which resumed after a four-week suspension caused by its aggressive position on Hwang’s controversial stem cell research. ``Hwang’s team used more than 1,600 eggs obtained from a total of 86 donors for their stem cell papers featured by the U.S. journal Science in 2004 and 2005,’’ MBC producer Choi Seung-ho said. Hwang claimed to have harvested the first-ever...

Disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk defended himself insisting he has the technology to produce patient-specific stem cells and that he had been the victim of a "long-planned" conspiracy. An investigation panel at Seoul National University has concluded Hwang did not produce any embryonic stem cells individually tailored to patients as claimed in a paper published in the journal Science last year. Hwang stood by his work in an interview with a local Buddhist newspaper Saturday. "I definitely have the source technology to produce tailored embryonic stem cells," Hwang was quoted as saying in Beopbo. "I can replicate the process any time."...

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 29 - Hwang Woo Suk, South Korea's disgraced star scientist, could present no evidence to corroborate his landmark claim that he had cloned human embryos and extracted from them stem cells that genetically match patients, a university panel said today. The announcement by the panel, from Seoul National University where Dr. Hwang did his research, suggested that he did not just grossly exaggerate his work in an article published in the journal Science in June, but fabricated the entire paper. "So far we could not find any stem cells regarding Dr. Hwang's 2005 paper that genetically...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The stunning fall of South Korea's stem cell hero Hwang Woo-Suk set the stage for a ferocious new battle in the highly politicised debate over cloning in the United States. Hwang's disgrace shocked stem cell research advocates and the anti-cloning lobby alike, and some observers say his tailspin could at least slow the race for breakthroughs in the lucrative bio-technology industry. Investigators at Seoul National University said Thursday there was no evidence to prove Hwang's claim to have cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them that genetically match patients. His supposed breakthrough was so important...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Fame, heaps of government cash and an idea to expand the horizons of science may have contributed to the large-scale fraud at a Seoul laboratory that has shocked the academic world and many South Koreans, experts said on Friday. A South Korean panel dealt a devastating blow to discredited scientist Hwang Woo-suk on Thursday, concluding that his once-celebrated team had provided no data to prove they had produced tailored embryonic stem cells. Their 2005 paper on producing such stem cells was one of the most acclaimed scientific works of the year. It helped solidify Hwang's status as...

SEOUL, South Korea - An already disgraced scientist lied about all of the stem cell lines he claimed were matched to different patients through cloning, investigating researchers said in a new jolt to the shattered reputation of Hwang Woo-suk. Thursday's announcement all but ends the fraud investigation into one of three major cloning breakthroughs claimed by the one-time scientific superstar and national hero. Probes of Hwang's two other groundbreaking experiments are still under way at Seoul National University where he worked before resigning in disgrace last week. The latest news was one more disappointment to the scientific world, which had...

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Two members of a stem-cell research team allegedly gave $30,000 to a former member of the group to retract comments about fabricating research data. Professors Ahn Cu-rie and Yoon Hyun-soo, both of Seoul National University, allegedly gave the money to Kim Seon-jong during a trip this month to the University of Pittsburgh, where he had been working since he left the South Korean research team, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Tuesday. University officials say research by Professor Hwang Woo-suk was fabricated. Hwang said he would resign from the university but did not admit his work,...

SEOUL - Patient-specific stem cells that disgraced South Korean cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk said he had produced this year do not exist, investigators have concluded, according to a news report Monday. A panel at Seoul National University, which allowed DNA tests to be conducted to verify Hwang's research published in the US journal Science, said there was no evidence to support the existence of tailored stem cells, Yonhap news agency said. "There were no such patient-specific stem cells as in the 2005 paper of Science," it said, without naming its source, while adding the panel had been analyzing the DNA...

The unwelcome but indisputable revelation that some of the most exciting biomedical claims of the past few years were the product of scientific fraud settled like a cloud over the American scientific community yesterday. Stem cell researchers said they were depressed and discouraged to learn that an investigatory panel at Seoul National University had found that most of the precious human embryonic stem cell colonies that its scientists had touted were fakes. The star scientist at the heart of that deception -- Hwang Woo Suk -- resigned yesterday from his university post, his meteoric rise to fame coming to a...

SEOUL, South Korea - While South Korea's most famous scientist was resigning Friday in disgrace after his university said he faked stem cell research, one of his greatest purported breakthroughs was romping in the snow. Snuppy, an Afghan hound that researcher Hwang Woo-suk said he cloned, was shown in photographs by South Korean media being led by a handler on a leash through the grounds of Seoul National University's animal hospital, where the dog is now kept. "Lonely Snuppy after professor Hwang leaves," Yonhap news agency wrote in one photo caption. Hwang unveiled Snuppy — named for Seoul National University...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Scientists fretted Friday that a spectacular cloning fraud that hid in plain sight has set back legitimate stem cell work around the world. Cloning experts and stem cell scientists said research in the potentially revolutionary field of regenerative medicine will continue unabated. But they said public confidence in their work had been weakened by a sham branded by experts as the most visible case of scientific fraud they could recall. Scientists also struggled to explain how they didn't earlier catch the charismatic South Korean veterinarian's claim in a Science paper published in May that he cloned...

The South Korean university that once boasted of its relationship with stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suck has now condemned him for grave misconduct. University investigators say the researcher falsified his research results, and Dr. Hwang has resigned in disgrace.Ro Jung-hye, chief of the Seoul National University's research office, said Friday that Dr. Hwang faked most of his reasearch results, which were hailed as groundbreaking when first announced.Ms. Roe says Dr. Hwang has committed major misconduct, which undermines the fundamentals of science.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk faked results of at least nine of 11 stem-cell lines he claimed to have created, a deliberate deception that has undermined the credibility of science, his university said Friday. The announcement by Seoul National University of results so far in its investigation into Hwang's work were the first confirmation of allegations that have cast a shadow over his entire list of breakthroughs in cloning and stem-cell technology. "This kind of error is a grave act that damages the foundation of science," the panel said. In a May paper in the journal...

SEOUL (Reuters) - The results of a landmark 2005 paper on producing tailored embryonic stem cells were intentionally fabricated, a South Korean investigation panel said on Friday. The nine-member panel from Seoul National University has been examining the work of stem-cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who faces charges from collaborators that key findings in their paper on producing tailored embryonic stem cells were fabricated. The panel made the announcement at a televised news conference.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In a further blow to the credibility of the South Korean researcher who claimed to be the first to clone a human embryo, the journal Science said Tuesday it's now investigating a 2004 study it published that first brought Hwang Woo-suk to prominence. At issue are two vital photographs that Hwang used to illustrate his breakthrough claim. They appear identical to photos published previously in another journal on an unrelated topic. The latest allegation adds to a long list of charges leveled against the fallen "cloning king" in the past month. Hwang maintains his central findings,...

The South Korean scandal that shook the world of science last week is just one sign of a global explosion in research that is outstripping the mechanisms meant to guard against error and fraud. Experts say the problem is only getting worse, as research projects, and the journals that publish the findings, soar. Science is often said to bar dishonesty and bad research with a triple safety net. The first is peer review, in which experts advise governments about what research to finance. The second is the referee system, which has journals ask reviewers to judge if manuscripts merit publication....

SEOUL, South Korea - A panel questioned stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk, sealed off his office and secured materials in his laboratory Sunday as it began a probe of allegations he falsified embryonic stem cells that he said he had created in a scientific breakthrough. Seoul National University began the investigation after Hwang acknowledged there were "fatal errors" in a May article in the journal Science claiming that he and other researchers cloned human embryos and created 11 stem cell lines that genetically matched certain patients. Scientists hope to use such "therapeutic cloning" someday to create tissue for transplant into...

As a South Korean scientist defends against mounting accusations that he falsified evidence in a breakthrough stem cell study, researchers in California said the controversy has caused significant damage to a promising and fledgling field. Doubts about Hwang Woo-suk's claims that he cloned human cells to create embryonic stem cells have made scientists wonder whether the prospect might remain elusive for years. Researchers and doctors hope to use this process to genetically tailor stem cells for patients suffering from such diseases as Parkinson's, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. "It's a black eye on the whole world of science," Richard Murphy, president...

<p>Before confessing last week to ethical lapses in his research, South Korean stem-cell pioneer Dr. Hwang Woo Suk had enjoyed god-like status in his native land.</p> <p>The veterinarian and Seoul National University professor had made international headlines in 2004 when his team was the first to harvest stem cells from cloned human embryos. Since then, the South Korean government had granted him the official title of “Supreme Scientist,” Korean Air officials had dubbed him a “national treasure” deserving of free passage on its flights for a decade, and his online fan club had attracted some 15,000 members.</p>