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KMID : 1172020020030010047
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Journal of Korean Bioethics Association
2002 Volume.3 No. 1 p.47 ~ p.73
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Cloning Controversies in S. Korea
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Park Hee-Ju
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Abstract
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This study documents cloning controversies in S. Korea. The development of Korean episodes divide into three periods. First, the news from Scotland in the early 1997 ignited the cloning controversy in Korea. The technology that gave birth to Dolly could be used for human cloning. This possibility touched the ethical nerve cord of the many religionists and philosophers in Korea. This was, however, a mere reaction of Korean society to a scientific breakthrough made in a foreign country. In the second period, cloning became a national issue of her own when some Korean scientists successfully developed their own cloning technology. For instance, Hwang Woo Suk, professor of veterinary science at Seoul National University, cloned a cow in 12 February 1999, that was the world’s fifth success in animal cloning. This produced mixed responses of national pride and horror. In the third period, the focus of cloning controversy shifted to
the therapeutic cloning. If the ethical concern on human cloning dominated the first and second period, medical and economical concerns were strongly expressed by the supporters of this new technology. Therapeutic cloning used cloned human embryo from which stem cells were extracted. This process inevitably involves destruction of the human embryo, that raised serious ethical concern. Therefore, an alternative method was developed to avoid such an ethical hurdle, that used adult somatic cells as a source for stem cells. Now the relative merits of these methods in terms of medical, economical and ethical concerns are weighed and this consists of the core of the present disputes over therapeutic cloning.
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KEYWORD
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reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning, cloning controversies in Korea, stem cell
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