By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter

Profs. Hwang Woo-suk and Moon Shin-yong, who caught the world by surprise last week by announcing their success in human embryo cloning, said they will stop cloning with human eggs due to ethical concerns.

The Seoul National University professors made the announcement in a press conference Wednesday night upon arriving at the Incheon International Airport from the U.S.

``We tentatively stopped cloning with human eggs. We will resume such studies only after receiving international opinions and the views of the Korean government and people,’’ Hwang said.

Hwang and Moon co-led a Korean research team that created human embryos through cloning and extracted embryonic stem cells, which can develop into any kind of cell in the body.

The biotechnological feat is believed to provide a ray of hope in treating chronic illnesses, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, although substantial applications are still years away. Hwang said clinical trials may be possible in a decade.

The breakthrough has faced criticism from moral objectors at home and abroad, especially because the research capitalized on human eggs, even though they were from volunteers.

``If we don’t stick to human eggs, we think there will be fewer moral disputes. So, we will use alternative sources and to that end, we will seek international cooperation,’’ Hwang said. Yet, Hwang expressed his worries about creating human clones for reproduction, or creating babies in laboratories.

``I do not rule out the possibility that our new findings can be used in reproductive cloning by some rogue scientists. But the Korean National Assembly has already legislated a bioethics law, so reproductive human cloning will be impossible at least here if the study is conducted under strict monitoring,’’ Hwang said.

The National Assembly passed a bioethics law last December, making human cell cloning legal only for medical use.

Despite moral issues, Hwang said he would continue therapeutic cell cloning on stem cells, which his team keeps in three separate places in preparation for unexpected accidents.

Should the stem-cell study become impossible here, Hwang said he would leave Korea to a country where such research is possible. On the same breath, though, he said there is no possibility that he would work for a foreign country or a non-Korean company.

Regarding the advent timing of on the stem-cell therapy, Hwang said he expected a clinical trial would be conducted in around 10 years, because the study is still in its nascent stages.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr