South Korea’s top court on Thursday upheld a suspended prison term on disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk on criminal charges related to faked research. A lower court in 2010 sentenced Hwang to 18 months in prison for embezzling research funds and illegally buying human eggs, but suspended the penalty. The Supreme Court said in a statement that it made that ruling final on Thursday. Hwang scandalized the international scientific community in 2005 when his breakthrough human cloning research involving embryonic stem cells was found to have been faked. Hwang later admitted the data was faked but claimed he had been deceived by a fellow researcher.—AP
Your Thoughts …
