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Those who have followed the cloning debate will know that one of the problems faced by cloners is that they need eggs. Not the kind you get from chickens: the kind you get from women. Lots of eggs. In fact, vast quantities of eggs—if ever the mythical "therapeutic cloning" is to be made to work, every "one-on-one medication" would require the killing of an embryo to get its stem cells, and to get one suitable embryo, you need a lot of eggs.

Even to do basic cloning research, you need a lot of them. Dr. Hwang apparently used thousands. Unlike sperm, eggs are hard to get. Women produce very few, and what researchers (and test-tube baby clinics) like to do is give them drugs so that they "superovulate" and produce a whole bunch each time. It sounds simple, but the drugs are powerful hormones. They can have very nasty side effects. One of their side effects is death. You might be prepared to risk your life to have your own baby. Risking it to keep researchers in business is another question, even if they keep claiming they can come up with "cures."

Well, trust the U.K., outpost of the Brave New World, to take a lead. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, the government agency that also comes up with policy proposals, wants to change the rule that says women can only donate eggs for research if they are already producing them for infertility. The details are full of assurances and safeguards. But at the end of the day, the combination of cloning/stem cell hype and the fact that many women have relatives with nasty diseases whom they would love to help cure will lead them to risk their health and their lives to feed the demands of hungry researchers.

In reporting the news, the London Times candidly stated: "Egg donation, however, can cause fertility problems and requires women to take drugs to stimulate their ovaries. This carries a risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a complication that can, in rare cases, cause kidney damage and death."

The report goes on to suggest that only campaigners for "embryo rights" oppose this change, while "independent ethicists" support it: an interesting way to caricature the parties to this debate.

Meanwhile, back in Pittsburgh …
The American collaborator of the infamous Korean cloning fraud, Dr. Hwang, is a distinguished scientist at the University of Pittsburgh. He, too, is now the focus of intense investigations, and his school has published the results of an internal inquiry about his role in what may prove to be the biggest science fraud of our generation. According to them, Dr. Schatten is worthy of censure. The Washington Post summarizes their results as follows:

[T]he panel said Schatten "shirked" his responsibilities as a senior author on two seminal research papers he published with the Koreans; exhibited a "lack of oversight and critical judgment"; sought out the "media spotlight" when the research appeared to be going well and then made a "concerted and deliberate effort … to distance himself" when it became clear trouble was afoot; and was "disingenuous" with the university investigators who interviewed him.

What's more, he accepted $40,000 in fees from Dr. Hwang. Whether he will be disciplined by Pitt is up to his dean. Meanwhile, his former buddy Dr. Hwang has been fired by Seoul National University and is under police investigation for defrauding the government of his research funding.

At the same time, Dr. Hwang is reported to be suing Dr. Schatten for the U.S. patent rights to his work. This story gets more like daytime TV every day.

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50