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Oversight framework over oocyte procurement for somatic cell nuclear transfer: comparative analysis of the Hwang Woo Suk case under South Korean bioethics law and U.S. guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research

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Abstract

We examine whether the current regulatory regime instituted in South Korea and the United States would have prevented Hwang’s potential transgressions in oocyte procurement for somatic cell nuclear transfer, we compare the general aspects and oversight framework of the Bioethics and Biosafety Act in South Korea and the US National Academies’ Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, and apply the relevant provisions and recommendations to each transgression. We conclude that the Act would institute centralized oversight under governmental auspices while the Guidelines recommend politically-independent, decentralized oversight bodies including a special review body for human embryonic stem cell research at an institutional level and that the Guidelines would have provided more vigorous protection for the women who had undergone oocyte procurement for Hwang’s research than the Act. We also suggest additional regulations to protect those who provide oocytes for research in South Korea.

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Notes

  1. The Summary of the Final Report on Professor Woo Suk Hwang’s Research Allegations by Seoul National University Investigation Committee states, “Regarding the article in 2004, Professor Hwang claimed to have been unaware of the egg donation by the laboratory members. However, the graduate student who donated eggs informed the committee that the act of donation, while voluntary, was approved by Professor Hwang. Egg aspiration was carried out by Dr. Sung Il Roh on March 10 of 2003 at MizMedi Hospital, and notably, Professor Hwang accompanied the student to the hospital himself. In May of 2003, Professor Hwang’s research team circulated a form asking consent for voluntary egg donation and collected signatures from female technicians. This information is based on the testimony provided by eight current and former lab members” [3].

  2. “One of his collaborators admitted that he had paid at least 21 Korean women about $1,400 apiece for their oocytes” [6]. “Through egg-brokers, 63 women underwent 75 oocyte procurements at MizMedi Hospital and 22 women underwent 25 procurements at Hanna Women’s Clinic” [7].

  3. These eight institutions are as follows: Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Agricultural Biotechnology, MizMedi Hospital Medical Research Center, Gachon Medical School, Seoul National University School of Medicine, Hanyang University School of Medicine, Sunchon National University College of Natural Science, and Hanna Women’s Clinic.

  4. These four institutions are as follows: MizMedi Hospital, Hanyang University, and Hanna Women’s Clinic MizMedi Hospital, Hanyang University, and Hanna Women’s Clinic.

  5. The Guidelines recommend that no payment, cash or payment-in-kind, may be provided for donating sperm, oocytes, somatic cells, and blastocysts in excess of the clinical need for research purposes. Focusing on hESC research, the Guidelines do not take any position on whether financial or non-financial compensation may be provided for donating gametes or blastocysts for IVF.

  6. Professor Sang Ik Hwang at Seoul National University says the use of traded oocytes by Hwang’s team for its research was a clear breach of ethical medical conduct on the part of Hwang’s physician-collaborator under the Korean Medical Association’s two Guidelines [27]. According to him, Article 8(2) of the Guidelines on Life Cloning Experiments declared in 1999 provides that “life cloning researchers may not be involved in the trading of sperm, eggs, or somatic cells under any circumstances.” Additionally, Article 69 of the Guidelines of Ethics for the Medical Profession declared in 2001 provides that “medical doctors may not exploit the socio-economically vulnerable population because of poverty…by subjecting them to medical research, unless approved otherwise” [27].

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  1. KAIST Graduate School of Innovation and Technology Management, 335 Gwahang-no, Bldg E7/Rm 2102, Goosung-dong, Yooseong-gu, DaeJeon, 305-701, South Korea

    Mi-Kyung Kim

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Kim, MK. Oversight framework over oocyte procurement for somatic cell nuclear transfer: comparative analysis of the Hwang Woo Suk case under South Korean bioethics law and U.S. guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research. Theor Med Bioeth 30, 367–384 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-009-9113-5

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