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Sunday, November 20, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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Ethics scandal could bolster stem-cell foes
By Rick Weiss
The Washington Post
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U.S. biologist Gerald Schatten abruptly quit collaborating with Hwang Woo-suk last week.
WASHINGTON - An ethics crisis at one of the world's most successful human embryonic-stem-cell laboratories has plunged the controversial field into a new swirl of uncertainty, with U.S. scientists wondering if a political backlash will develop.
The accusations surrounding Korean cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University - the first scientist to grow stem cells inside cloned human embryos - has killed a spate of planned studies that sought to prove the cells' medical potential.
But the claims that Hwang may have obtained human eggs for his studies from women who felt pressured to donate are reigniting a long-smoldering debate in the United States over the ethics of paying young women for their eggs, which are difficult to obtain but essential to the production of stem cells tailored to individuals.
Egg donation, which is generally safe but occasionally leads to serious and even life-threatening complications, has been a wedge issue in the stem-cell debates, linking feminists and other liberal thinkers to conservatives who favor tighter limits on stem-cell research.
With a range of stem-cell bills primed for congressional action as early as January, the Korean meltdown could bolster those seeking stronger limits.
"We're in danger of making women into guinea pigs for this research even before there are any treatments to be tested," said Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, Calif., a pro-choice public-policy group that favors stronger oversight of egg donation and other biomedical technologies.
Ties severed
The imbroglio erupted
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