Dr. Hwang's Groundbreaking Work

Published: August 7, 2007, 3:50 pm

Dr. Woo Suk Hwang is back in the news. You'll recall Dr. Hwang as the South Korean scientist who falsified research on stem cells from cloned embryos, and was disgraced. Now the BBC News reports on an independent review of his work suggesting that he actually accomplished something more remarkable: Virgin Birth, or parthenogenesis as it's referred to technically. It's the extraction of stem cells from embryos produced without fertilization. Researcher Azim Surani responded that producing embryos from human eggs is potentially more useful than from Hwang's discredited clones, and far less ethically challenging. Do tell, Dr. Surani? Regardless of the method used, embryos which are the genetic clones of the donor or host are developed AND destroyed in the stem cell extraction process. The news item concludes with scientists do not know how significant the lack of contribution from the father's DNA will be. I'd say that's one important thing to know

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