KOREAN EGG BLACK MARKET
Hwang’s research could even land one of his colleagues in jail. Dr Roh Sung-il, who runs an infertility clinic in Seoul and is a key member of Hwang’s stem cell team, has admitted that he bought women’s eggs. He is being questioned by police. There are suspicions, too, that Hwang’s team may also have used purchased eggs. Dr Roh excused himself by appealing to a higher law: “I knew the eggs were traded unlawfully. But I could not turn a blind eye to couples who were suffering fron infertility,” he told Korean media.
Meanwhile South Korean police have made their first arrest of a commercial egg broker and are investigating others. Under a new bioethics law passed in January, therapeutic cloning is legal, but commercial trading in eggs or sperm is banned. The man has been accused of recruiting women with massive credit card debts on the internet and then selling their eggs to infertile women in Korea and Japan.
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
China accused of sequencing Tibetan and Uyghur DNA to supply organ transplant market
A committee of the US Congress has heard shocking testimony about alleged forced organ harvesting from Uyghurs and Falun Gong...
European Parliament describes surrogacy as a form of human trafficking
The European Parliament has described “the exploitation of surrogacy” as a form of human trafficking in a legislative resolution on...
‘Forced surrogacy’ reported in the UK
A British charity working with victims of modern slavery has reported that it had received three reports of “forced surrogacy” for the...
We should react to atrocities in Gaza, says bioethicists
The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is creating tensions within the bioethics community. In an article in the...
Quadriplegic Quebec man chooses assisted dying rather than live with bedsores
A quadriplegic Quebec man has chosen assisted dying because of a bedsore he acquired when a hospital failed to give...
Transgender medicine critic Hilary Cass given police protection
The author of the recent review of Britain’s gender identity services for children and young people has told The Times (of London)...