[Editorial] What's Truly Good for Professor Hwang

Only an insignificant number of people are opposed to human embryo cloning research or disregard professor Hwang Woo Suk's accomplishments. Yet now there's a campaign to "defend" Hwang that is spreading like wildfire but is based on the premise there is a campaign to "do him in," when in fact there is no such thing. The flames are making rational debate and searching for the truth impossible.

The MBC television program PD Sucheop tried to examine the truth to the allegations Hwang violated ethical guidelines, and ever since it broadcast its findings it is being labeled a "traitor to the Korean people." Twelve out of eleven advertisers have either canceled their advertisements or asked that they be moved to other time slots. The show's producer and his family aren't leaving their home. Voicing concern about "excessive patriotism'' or speaking up about the need to respect bioethics gets denounced as treason. If you fail to stand with those "defending" Hwang you find yourself considered one of those out to "do him in."

Few people have made the Korean people proud as much as Hwang has. Netizens might in fact have been upset by the way PD Sucheop treated Hwang like a suspect in wrongdoing. The problem, however, is in the fact that no one in Korea attempted to ascertain what the truth was when the magazine Nature first started asking questions a year and a half ago. Ignoring the questions in Korea was not going to make them go away. Hwang would have suffered a far bigger blow had the truth first been confirmed by people outside the country.

People need to think about what would really be best for Hwang. The West established a system of research ethics based on introspection it engaged in following biological experiments it engaged in in years past. There was never any room for such immoral acts in our tradition of respect for life. Even defacing a human corpse was always considered immoral. It is time we revive that spirit of respect for life and apply it to scientific research. Let's remember that our pride in Hwang comes from the way he has given hope to people around the world suffering from incurable diseases and not because of the huge profits it might bring.

The Hankyoreh, 28 November 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]