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Egg trafficking crackdown
As the Korean government launches an investigation into Hwang's ethics, other reports suggest they have begun to arrest traders in human eggs under a new law that makes it illegal to buy and sell gametes—with penalties up to three years for the broker and two years for the woman selling her eggs. According to Reuters, women have been offered substantial sums to pay off credit-card debts in exchange for their eggs. It is ironic that this hardline (and healthy) approach to stamping out gamete trafficking should come hard on the heels of Hwang's effort to set up a global cell bank to trade in clones and embryonic stem cells. Japanese women, it seems, have made use of Korean trafficking, as in Japan there is no law against it. Obstetricians and gynecologists have a professional code that prohibits gamete trading.

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November (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49