So Much for an Unbiased Examination of Hwang Woo-suk

The "presidential panel" (National Bioethics Committee) that has been conducting the investigation of Hwang was supposedly going to be the first "real effort" to identify what went wrong in the Hwang matter. Today everyone in the world is looking to this board to release continuing analysis of ethics issues that have cropped up in the scandal. The other mechanisms have failed: the IRB missed every problem in the study, and the school's ethics committee was made up entirely of people nominated by the Hwang group.

So now, the head of the National Bioethics Committee has offered to resign. His law firm - and he - gave advice to Hwang to apply for an injunction that might prevent the broadcast of the first big television program aired by MBC that would bring Hwang down. Then after it aired, he helped Hwang think about his options. What a great guy to have in charge of the primary panel whom we are all listening to for final word on the investigation of Hwang Woo-suk.

At this point South Korea must call for an international investigation, lock up its current records, and await help in the matter. Anything further they do in the investigation will only make matters worse.