A South Korean researcher, Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, apologized and resigned Thursdasy November 25. Dr. Hwang was "the first scientist to clone a human embryo and then extract stem cells from it." Any research involving human tissue, particularly embryos and stem cells is ethnically charged. There are too many perceived risks that embryos will be created and then donated to research, which religious groups find a violation of human life. Therefore, there are strict guidelines for how such research is conducted.
In Korea, it is illegal both for egg donors to be paid for their eggs, and also for members of research teams to donate eggs to their own projects. However, according to Dr. Hwang, both of these scenarios took place among his project members; a hospital administrator paid other egg donors more than $1000 each for their eggs to boost donations. Dr. Hwang said the donations occurred without his knowledge.
