Abstract
The Hwang affair, a dramatic and far reaching instance of scientific fraud, shocked the world. This collective national failure prompted various organizations in Korea, including universities, regulatory agencies, and research associations, to engage in self-criticism and research ethics reforms. This paper aims, first, to document and review research misconduct perpetrated by Hwang and members of his research team, with particular attention to the agencies that failed to regulate and then supervise Hwang's research. The paper then examines the research ethics reforms introduced in the wake of this international scandal. After reviewing American and European research governance structures and policies, policy makers developed a mixed model mindful of its Korean context. The third part of the paper examines how research ethics reform is proactive (a response to shocking scientific misconduct and ensuing external criticism from the press and society) as well as reactive (identification of and adherence to national or international ethics standards). The last part deals with Korean society's response to the Hwang affair, which had the effect of a moral atomic bomb and has led to broad ethical reform in Korean society. We conceptualize this change as ethical modernization, through which the Korean public corrects the failures of a growth-oriented economic model for social progress, and attempts to create a more trustworthy and ethical society.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 355-380 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Science and Engineering Ethics |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Hwang was strongly supported by the Korean president, Moo-Hyun Roh (2003–2008), and his science and technology advisor, Ky-Yong Park (J. Kim 2006; S. Lee 2006). As we have mentioned, Park contrived to set up funding and regulatory policies favoring Hwang. President Roh visited Hwang’s laboratory in person and promised to support him; Roh commented during this visit that he felt a sort of magic when he saw Hwang’s stem cell technology (L. Kim 2008, p. 402). Later, when Dr. Hwang opened the World Stem Cell Hub in Korea, President Roh pledged that his government would manage ethical problems so as not to inhibit Dr. Hwang’s research. Regardless of their party affiliations, many leading Korean politicians and presidential candidates supported Hwang. Hwang and his team members even received the Order of Science and Technology Merit from the president. With the President’s backing, the National Bioethics Committee (NBC) was presided over by Hwang’s lawyer, Sam-Sung Yang (Gottweis and Triendle 2006, p, 143). When the Bioethics and Biosafety Act, a new law on stem cell technology, was promulgated in 2005, the NBC and the Ministry of Health and Welfare gave an exclusive right to research on human stem cell lines to Hwang’s team. When the Hwang scandal broke, the Korean president and government first defended Hwang, but as the evidence of scientific misconducts mounted they fell silent; to this day, the Korean government has never made a public apology regarding the Hwang affair.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments We would like to thank reviewers for their valuable comments and criticisms. We are also grateful to Gardner Rogers who edited this paper. This research was funded by Science and Technology Policy Institute in Korea.
Keywords
- Ethical modernization
- Hwang affair
- Regulation
- Research ethics
- Scientific misconduct
- Stem cell research
