Sometimes I am just amazed. Hwang Woo suk is a charlatan. Readers of SHS and others will recall that, a few years ago, he created an international media sensation by claiming to have created the first cloned embryos from which he obtained patient specific, tailor made, embryonic stem cells. He was lying. An investigation showed he had faked the research.
But now, the Australian government is going to give Hwang a patent on cloned embryonic stem cells! From the story:
Australian patent authorities will likely grant a patent to disgraced Korean stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk for a cloned human embryonic stem cell. “Once the registration process is over, Dr. Hwang can collect royalties on the proceeds from the sales of new medicine developed with his technology. His technology will equal the patent on the cloned sheep Dolly,” the foundation said.
Well, I guess he can patent the technique—which didn’t work—but there are no cloned stem cells to patent. Ridiculous.
On the plus side, Hwang’s patent could serve to further impede the development of human cloning, since he might begin demanding payments from anybody who tries. Indeed, that is a major factor that impeded the development of embryonic stem cell research.
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