Stem-cell research is the kind of scientific investigation that comes closest to tampering with life. For scientists engaged in this specialised and sensitive field at the frontiers of science, ethical issues should be a prime concern.
Human eggs used in the research need to be harvested from living women. But it is not easy to find donors who are willing to undergo such an operation, at least without any reward. Attracting donors through the offer of financial payments or other inducements, however, raises justifiable ethical concerns about the potential for exploitation. This is apart from the wider debate about moral and ethical issues arising from the harvesting of stem cells, such as whether the destruction of embryos created during the research amounts to the taking of an early form of human life.
The public apology yesterday by a leading stem-cell researcher, South Korean Hwang Woo-suk, for ethical lapses has put some of those issues in perspective. Professor Hwang and his team shot to fame last year when they became the first in the world to successfully clone and harvest embryonic stem cells.
This year they achieved a second feat by producing embryonic therapeutic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients - a major step in the quest to grow replacement tissue to treat diseases.
Professor Hwang had claimed that all the human eggs used in his research were donated by volunteers. But it has since transpired that among the donors were two women scientists on his team. While this was not illegal in South Korea, it violated the commonly observed international guideline that scientists should be cautious when using human subjects for research who are in a dependant relationship with them. This week a report by MBC, a South Korea television station, further revealed that some human eggs used by Professor Hwang's team were bought, through a third party, from women who were in financial difficulty.
Yesterday Professor Hwang did the honourable thing by resigning from the World Stem Cell Hub, which carries South Korea's hopes of becoming a global leader in this field. He accepted that scientific research should be conducted within the boundaries of ethics, and that he had breached those parameters.