South Korea to the rescue?

Published: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2005

The announcement that South Korean stem-cell scientists are offering to help beleaguered colleagues in the United States and Europe perform path-finding research through "therapeutic cloning" is a measure of how distorted America's research environment has become. The offer could help some scientists do research they might otherwise forgo, but American scientists should be wary of relying on South Korea instead of honing their own skills in the subtle art of cloning human embryos to extract their stem cells.

A South Korean team has emerged as the best in the world at cloning embryos. It was the first to clone human embryos and extract stem cells from them, and the first to clone a dog. Now it is setting up an international consortium - the World Stem Cell Hub, with satellite clinics in San Francisco and England - to create embryonic stem-cell lines derived from patients suffering from particular diseases. That would allow researchers who are reluctant to create the cell lines themselves to study the progression of the diseases and possibly find ways to treat any underlying genetic defects.

The creation of embryos to get stem cells matched to a particular patient or disease is legal in most parts of America, provided no federal funds are used. But political and ethical controversies have retarded progress, and seven states have banned research cloning. The South Korean venture would provide a way to sidestep controversy for those who need it. But researchers who aspire to leadership in this fast-moving field would be wise to seek private or state funds to do the work themselves.

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