An Exchange You Will Never See in America: The Archbishop Blesses Korean Stem Cell Cloning

This decade's Ian Wilmut, Hwang Woo-suk, whom Korean news outlets have taken to describing as a "star," is making the rounds in stem cell research. Early in the week he described to the major media the reasons why American stem cell laws are awful. On Tuesday and Wednesday, again talking about his big article on cloned human embryos (which we have blogged over and over again, and for which Magnus and Mildred Cho wrote an accompanying editorian in Science), he very publically signed up to help out with the next-generation version of Gerry Schatten's "ethics for stem cell researchers" course, which is moving to Stanford from Pitt.

But today's news is hillarious. The folks around the news scene are trying to figure out what to make of the meeting between Hwang and Seoul Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, at which they discussed the question of whether or not what Hwang is doing is unethical. According to the Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) , Hwang laid out his claim to the Archbishop quite simply: these are not viable embryos, and therefore there is no abortion and no moral issue:

According to Ahn and the Seoul Diocese public information office, Cheong explained that he did not oppose all of Hwang’s research but could not countenance cloning lives such as human fetuses to harvest stem cells. Cheong in a press release distributed to major Catholic newspapers on June 11 said stem cell research “is an act premised on destroying human life.”

Hwang responded the research team’s stem cells used eggs that were not fertilizers, and because there was no chance they could become implanted in the uterine wall, there was no scientific evidence that they could develop into life.

This is the part where if it had been an American conversation, someone from the National Council of Bishops would have castigated Hwang for mincing words or for acting inappropriately by creating an abomination. But that isn't what happened:

After the meeting, Hwang expressed palpable relief. “I came to get scolded, but instead received blessings and teachings,” he said. “Since my understanding may be a little poor in dealing with precious life, I will follow the teachings and guidance of the archbishop."

The two also issued a joint statement saying they were “in total agreement that no matter what the case, scientists must respect human life, and agreed that the talk was a valuable opportunity to promote and establish a direction for mutual understanding between the scientific and religious worlds.”

Rome is a long way from Korea, and further still is Washington.