Global Perspectives on Stem Cell Technologies by Aditya Bharadwaj

Author:Aditya Bharadwaj
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

In essence, Hwang’s capacity to devote himself springs from his mother’s simple self-sacrificing devotion, hard work, and love. The honesty and sincerity Hwang and his mother are depicted as embodying show an intensity and purity of emotion. Such a heightened emotional content and immanent affective capacity point to intense moral imaginings of the past and, by implication, an increasingly precarious present.

The import of this melodramatic narrative and its accompanying moral imaginings become clearer when Hwang describes his research team’s endeavors. In My stories of life, Hwang sees a sincere devotion to life that is visible in his team’s tireless scientific work. He describes the sacrifices of his young researchers who commit themselves to working in the laboratory from early in the morning until late at night and the comradery and the love they share (p. 154). Hwang also articulates his firm belief that scientists who know how to love those living beings around them ‘will never become cold scientists who disregard life’ (p. 144). Thus, in the story of the Hwang team’s research, an intense and (paradoxically) sacrificial ‘love of life’ simultaneously performs as morality while enabling the great scientific work that is said to be possible only for those with humanitarian inspirations. However, hESC research requires even more. As Hwang explains, his stem cell research team’s scientific labor of love is possible only with a complementary and equally sincere gift of love—that expressed by women who donate their eggs with a sincere mind. While expressing his immense gratitude to these donors, Hwang attributes his stem cell research team’s success to the ‘beautiful and pure hearts’ of his egg donors (p. 116).

In fact, the majority of women whose eggs were used in Hwang Woo-suk’s hESC research received either monetary or other kinds of reimbursement for their donations (Leem and Park 2008; Baylis 2009; Kim Gyeongnye 2010; Tsuge and Hong 2011). Nevertheless, a sizeable portion of women reportedly made voluntary donations of their eggs to Hwang’s research (Leem and Park 2008; Tsuge and Hong 2011). Moreover, even after reports of irregularities in Hwang’s research protocols and results became public news, a number of women continued to express willingness to donate their eggs (Leem and Park 2008). In My stories of life—published after allegations of unethical egg procurement became public but before accusations of data fabrication became widespread—Hwang heavily emphasizes the emotional motivations he describes as underlying voluntary egg donations.

In a section titled ‘Beautiful People’ (A-reumda-un Saramdeul), Hwang tells stories about people who want to donate their eggs to his hESC research team and thus contribute to his potentially lifesaving research. Hwang describes receiving emails from women who want to donate their eggs after hearing him lecture on his stem cell research. He writes that medical doctors working with severely ill or paralyzed patients often want to donate their own eggs. In particular, the mother with a sick or dying child stands out as a clear example of the beautiful emotions underlying voluntary egg donation. Here again, Hwang contrasts women’s self-sacrificial altruistic donations with the presumed self-interests that accompany paid donations (p.

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