Important lesson in stem-cell fraud case

The scientific community was skeptical about claims by a South Korean researcher who claimed a major breakthrough. That helped expose him.

Perhaps the lesson in the case of the fabricated stem-cell research by a South Korean scientist is the need for healthy skepticism by editors of scientific publications and peer-review committees that check the research studies ahead of time.

The scientific community was skeptical all along, and that uncertainty helped expose the deception before too much damage was done. But lawmakers in this country and elsewhere used the work of South Korea's Hwang Woo-Suk to make their case for more research dollars. In Congress, some lawmakers used the South Korean's supposed breakthrough to argue national pride and the importance of U.S. scientists' having adequate funding in a key medical research field.

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