Word: hwang
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...realized these people are not living," Hwang, 51, says. "They are surviving. That day I made a promise to myself to continue my research until I succeeded...
...Last week, Hwang was in Seattle describing his team's breakthrough in cloning human cells for therapeutic purposes, which could lead to the creation of replacement organs and tissues for injured or diseased patients. That could take years, or may never happen at all, because of the controversy surrounding human cloning. Laws passed in Korea last year make cloning for the purpose of making a baby illegal, and legislation coming into effect next year will probably restrict therapeutic cloning to a few institutions granted government licenses and approved by an ethics board...
...Hwang says he understands the ethical questions inescapably conjured by his work, but he insists that the research go on, for people like the paralyzed husband he met last year. "The medical value and potential of this is immeasurable," says Hwang. "Halting all related research would be like burning down the stable to catch a flea...
...Hwang's dedication to humans is something of a mid-career switch. A trained veterinarian, Hwang teamed up with gynecologist Dr. Moon Shin Yong, a gynecologist and leading fertility expert, after Dolly the sheep was cloned in Scotland in 1996. Part of the work was aimed at creating better livestock: in 1999 they cloned a high-yielding dairy cow in Korea, and last December they announced the successful cloning of a cow resistant to mad-cow disease. But they were also looking at how cloning could benefit humans. Their team has cloned miniature pigs whose organs could potentially be used...
...Hwang grew up in a hardscrabble village in the Korean countryside and remembers eating tree bark and grass roots to survive in the aftermath of the Korean War. His father died when Hwang was five, and his mother owned three cows that she bred for calves. The money kept the family going?cowpats heated their home?and it was Hwang's job to care for the animals after school. He was the only one in his class to get past elementary school, and his mother hoped he could become the village scribe, the most prestigious local...