Free Republic

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...

Human eggs which could grow into embryos have been created in a laboratory for the first time, scientists announced yesterday. They were created by scraping stem cells off the surface of ovaries and exposing them to a chemical which stimulated growth. The breakthrough suggests limitless supplies of eggs could be grown, solving the problem of the acute shortage of donor eggs for infertile women wanting IVF treatment. But the idea has horrified pro-life groups after scientists admitted they could use the technique to 'farm' embryos for their research. The procedure was tested by a University of Tennessee team, which took...

U.S. draws foreigners in search of human eggs Several clinics on the West Coast report increasing numbers of women from Asia, Canada and Australia seeking fertility help Tuesday, December 21, 2004 SAN FRANCISCO -- The building occupies a piece of prime real estate in one of America's most beloved cities, just blocks from North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf. But the address, in the shadow of Coit Tower, is not in any guidebook. And though the visitors to the salmon-colored structure at 55 Francisco St. carry tourist visas in their passports, sightseeing is only marginally on the agenda. The dozens of...