Ethical thinking helps guide new South Korean World Stem Cell Hub

Portland, OR – Oct. 18, 2005 – As the embryonic stem cell debate rages in the United States, the South Korean World Stem Cell Hub has deployed a more practical and less acrimonious approach for guiding advancements in this area of research. In an interview conducted by Geneforum, a Portland-based non-profit that educates, engages and consults the public on bioethical issues, Korean-born Insoo Hyun, Ph.D., a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University and co-chair of the South Korean World Stem Cell Hub Ethics Working Group, describes how a cooperative and open dialogue between the Bank and the S. Korean government has allowed him, at the onset, to train researchers to think ethically about embryonic stem cell research. "If you don't think about the ethical issues, there will be a time when it will hinder your basic science research, like what's happening in the U.S,” says Hyun in the interview. "You really need to be involved in the ethical discussion from the start." Hyun sees the work of the Ethics Working Group as advisory in nature, rather than as a body that provides oversight or policing. As researchers work on projects, and issues start to come up, they “come to us and immediately ask, well, what do you think of this or that?” says Hyun. "Part of the challenge is to train them to see where some of the ethical dilemmas lie.” Hyun remembers one exchange where he asked: "If we tell you that it is ethically problematic, you won't do it? And they (the scientists) said, no." When asked about opposition within Korea to the Hub's work, Hyun pointed out that one of the Hub's key researchers is both female and Catholic and that she is “especially concerned with trying to reach out and address the religious concerns about their research.” “The Hub's approach represents a new paradigm for dealing with controversial genomic technologies,” said Greg Fowler, Ph.D., executive director of Geneforum. “In the U.S. we generally let the research forge ahead and only after it raises the ire of the public do we sit down and try to address the ethical and public policy issues. This kind of approach will only continue to hamper our efforts to compete in this exciting and economically important area.”