Have you no shame, sir?

One of the things that a person with any shred of decency does when they have been caught red-handed, caught in a bald-faced lie, is to take full credit for what they have done. Dr. Hwang doesn't seem to understand this, as evidenced by this half-baked apology:

"I take full responsibility for the papers and offer my apology," Dr Hwang told a news conference. "My life will be spent undoing my wrongdoing. ... "I feel so miserable that it's difficult even to say sorry."

As evidenced by the next quotation, it was apparently very difficult. Here's how Roger Highfield of the Telegraph (U.K.) saw it:

But he insisted that he had created 100 cloned human embryos and said fellow researchers apparently misled him by claiming they had used them to create human stem cells. Dr Hwang suspected that some stem cell lines he believed had been created had been stolen or switched by co-researchers.

Right. The old "my subordinates betrayed me" excuse. I should have predicted that one. Far from being an acceptable excuse, such an explanation actually points to another problem with Hwang's labs, though not an especially egregious or uncommon one: Hwang was also a poor manager. The subordinates who allegedly betrayed him were hired by him directly or, most likely, by someone who reported to him. As their manager, he's resposnsible for setting the tone and expectations of his organization.

A Man of the People

Hwang also took great pains to try and show that his motives were not bad ones. Rather, he tells us that he was doing it for the good of the nation and that he and his research teams became careless and starry-eyed in pursuit of achieving their noble goals:

The scientist, who was close to tears, added: "We've gone crazy about work and I've been blinded. All I could see was whether I could make Korea stand in the centre of the world through this research.

Who was it that said that this kind of wrapping-yourself-in-the-flag patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel?

In the final analysis it matter very little if Hwang faked the research for his own fame or for the glory of South Korea. Even if his story of being betrayed is true, it means that this biologist failed to culture a culture of uncompromising integrity and ethics. As the head of the lab and the face of Korean biotech before the rest of world, that is admittedly a heavy burden. However, since he was prepared to take the lion's share of the fame and rewards, he has to be prepared also accept a proportionate amount of the responsibility when the infamy and punishment is being meted out. Anything less isn't worthy of being called leadership.

And the question of leadership is an important one here because Hwang does hope to salvage his career and reputation. I say this because when Hwang says ""My life will be spent undoing my wrongdoing", I don't imagine that he plans on doing that from behind bars. I think he means that he wants to be running another lab someday. This is why, I think, that despite the fact that the highly prestigious journal, Science, has now formally retracted Hwang's two major stem cell papers, the doctor still claims insists that his lab had, in fact:

...used cloning technology to create human embryos, and then mined them for valuable embryonic stem cells (first paper) ... (and that) he had taken this a step further, creating several tailored batches, or lines, of stem cells from diseased and injured volunteers (second paper).

It would seem that the Korean authorities are in no mood to accept Hwang's semi-apology as sufficient, let along to see him donning a white lab jacket again.

As if to underline Dr Hwang's fall from being the "pride of Korea", some 60 investigators joined by computer experts and genetic analysts raided dozens of locations across Seoul yesterday, including Dr Hwang's home and lab, as part of an inquiry into the alleged misuse of state funds. During the search, Dr Hwang's laptop, files, notebooks and PCs were seized.

And according to the Khaleej Times, the dragnet is widening:

South Korean prosecutors investigating fraudulent claims of disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk on Friday barred more of his collaborators from leaving the country, local media reported. Including Hwang, the total number of people who have been ordered not to leave the country stands at 28, Yonhap news agency and other media reported, citing prosecution officials they didn’t identify. Prosecutors were not immediately reachable for confirmation.

The Lying King and His Subjects

Meanwhile, the Washington Post would have us know that there is some soul-searching going on in South Korean right now:

Here in South Korea, Hwang's case has provoked soul-searching about national values, which often focus on success and quick results, sometimes at the expense of ethical standards.

"Our society has been overwhelmed with the principle of focusing on outcome instead of procedure, and we forgot that ends cannot justify the means," Chung Un Chan, president of Seoul National University, where most of Hwang's work was conducted, said in an apology to the nation Wednesday. "Most of us, in the name of national interests, exaggerated Dr. Hwang's research to make it an aspiration of the nation."

Yes, they did. Hwang was given an official title of "supreme scientist" by the South Korean goverment and was widely known as "Pride of Korea." According to the director of PD Notebook, South Korea's equivalent of "60 minutes" (no disrespect intended to PD Television by that comparision), when that program broke the news late last year, it was deluged with hostile email. No one, it seemed, believed them.

"The Korean people were blinded against the truth all along," said Han Hak Soo, the producer and director of "PD Notebook." "Hwang was not just a successful scientist, he had become a Jesus figure, someone who said he could make the crippled walk again. He was going to make Korea the center of a new major industry in stem cell research and biotechnology. How could any good Korean dare question him?"

That rhetorical question is stunning both for its candor and as an indictment of the cult of personality that could only seem to arise in a country laboring under a severe inferiority complex. And it would seem that Hwang's strategy is to use his nation's desire to claim a place in the world scientific community to his favor. Perhaps he thinks that If he can convince enough people that his motives were good and that goals were good ones, he just might be able to avoid prosecution and/or harsh criminal penalties. Perhaps he thinks he'll still be able to do science again.

if this is his strategy, then I, for one, hope it fails, and miserably. Here's why. Although I have no vested interest in seeing Hwang severely punished, there is a case to be made that there should be some, and that it should be swift and severe. It has nothing to do with soothing the bruised national ego or acting as a deterrent. Nor would it's intended objective be to restore national and internation confidence in the ability of South Korean biotech researchers or the viability of commercial applications of their work. (There was, interestingly, as much money as national prestige at stake. According to Bloomberg, "Hwang's research was expected by a South Korean state institute publication to be worth 33 trillion won ($34 billion) by 2015, a tenth of the global industry.")

No, the case is a pragmatic one, one that might help us all avoid an even greater evil. As I wrote last month in Roe v. Hwang:

"My (prediction) second is that Hwang will be highly sought-after as a private researcher, i.e. doing research in this area for interests who have no interest in peer-reviewed publication. I hope my second prediction is wrong."

What I was hinting at there is so much money to be made and so many unscrupulous being willing to fund research that could earn a part of it, that if Hwang is not dealt with harshly, and soon, he could very well find himself in the employ of just such people. This would be a tragedy.

Without peer review (which in this case was duped) and professional ethics (which is this case were violated) and the lure of scientific acceptance (which is something Hwang will now never, ever be able to achieve), there would be no constraints on the development of technologies and procedures and life forms that, if seen in the light of day, would horrify the vast majority of the civilized world even though many of the same might eventually be brought around to accepting the results, i.e. "clone my dead dog or my lost child, just don't tell me how you did it.) There would be a situation whereby Hwang and others would be able to strive only for ends while thinking nothing of means- the exact same state of affairs that, by his own admission, got him into all this trouble in the first place. Truly sorry or scheming SOB matters not- for all our sakes, this man belongs in jail- the sooner and longer the better.

hwang woo suk | biotechnology | stemcells | Hwang | Korea | stem cells | Bioethics

See also: Scientific Misconduct | Hwang's human Stem Cells Were All Fakes | Good News In The Stem Cell Race | Stem Cell Debacle and self correcting science | Faking Results: Stem Cell Research, New Elements, and Hubris |