Korean Views on Stem Cell Research

Korean Views on Stem Cell Research

Given Korea’s leadership in SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer) technology, I thought it might be of interest to have some info about the Korean point of view. In an earlier blog post this week (“Korean Stem Cell Bank Part 2”), I mentioned a Korean newspaper’s take on it; here is a little more thought on stem cells from other sources.

The Korean newspaper the JoongAng Daily today printed an opinion piece by the Dean of the College of Medicine at Seoul National University. Wang Kyu-chang gave a background on stem cells and on the World Stem Cell Hub that just opened in Korea, but he cautioned that stem cell research has a long way to go and that treatments cannot be expected immediately. He called for continued institutional and government support of all aspects of research and for “a process of active, sound and balanced discussion followed by the reaching of a consensus” in regard to the ethical issues.

The Website Geneforum posted an interview with Korea-born Insoo Hyun, Ph.D., a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University and co-chair of the South Korean World Stem Cell Hub Ethics Working Group on its website. Dr. Hyun holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, rather than a medical degree, and was awarded a Fulbright research award to begin qualitative research on the ethical, legal, and cultural dimensions of human cloning research in South Korea. In the interview, Hyun talks about his personal background in bioethics, about Dr. Hwang’s work and how ethical discussions fit in, about the Stem Cell Bank, and about stem cell research in general, and the differences between adult and embryonic stem cells.