The world of stem cell research was shaken weeks ago after Hwang Woo-Suk, a prominent South Korean stem cell researcher, admitted he faked experimental results on cloning human embryos in late December, and ripples can now be felt halfway across the globe.
UW-Madison, an American hub of stem cell research, may feel the lion's share of scrutiny.
'It's never good when something like this happens. The beauty of science is that it has mechanisms built into it that ensure that any kind of fraud is going to be exposed over time,' said Terry Devitt, a UW-Madison spokesperson for Dr. James Thomson, an especially high-profile scientist in the field.
'Nobody here is doing any cloning,' Devitt said. 'This is one group in Korea and the effects of it I've seen around campus have been negligible.'
However, Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, believes citizens should see the incident in Korea as a wake-up call.
'Take a deep breath, and look at what types of research are going on,' Prentiss said. 'If anything even close to what happened in South Korea happened here in Wisconsin, it would not only damage the UW's reputation, but would also hurt our economy.'
'No one's saying that the kind of things happening in Korea are happening here, but when we're at a cutting-edge form of technology,' he added. 'Firm ethical standards, guidelines, and a system of checks and balances should be in place to make sure that research is being done in an ethical way.'
Marc Tuttle, communications director at Pro-Life Wisconsin, argued such episodes would inevitably attract public attention, given the ethical nature of the research.
'When you're talking about destroying people for scientific research, that's always going to be considered unethical by most ethically minded people. There are some lines that civilized countries shouldn't cross,' Tuttle said.
Public scrutiny should also affect stem cells in the political arena, as well. While there are national limitations on stem cell research, what goes on in labs is somewhat unclear and, according to Devitt, too unmonitored.
'Sen. Fitzgerald wants to know how they are going to keep track of research [at UW-Madison] that goes in another direction and what protections are [put] in place,' Prentiss said.
Michelle Alswager, a board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, disagreed.
'What I appreciate about Governor Doyle is that he's able to let the scientists be scientists,' she said.
'Not letting the politicians make decisions on what science is best.'
