In December 1998, a team of Korean researchers at Kyunghee University Hospital, led by Professor Lee Bo-yeon, claimed that they had cloned a human embryo. Their method, they said, was to replace the nucleus of a woman's egg cell with the nucleus of a cell from her body, transferring her entire DNA to the egg. They then managed to coax the egg to divide twice, creating an embryo of four cells. Had that embryo continued to develop, it would have been a clone of the woman.

        According to an Associated Press story dated January 28, 1999, American experts said that, to their knowledge, this was a medical first. But a panel of the Korean Doctors Association concluded after a 25-day investigation that Professor Lee's team had kept such sloppy records that their accomplishment could not be verified and the results were in doubt.

        Meanwhile, Lee's claims provoked widespread media attention as well as anti-cloning rallies in South Korea, where the Parliament is moving toward a ban on human cloning research.

The 2020 Group
GLOBAL SITUATION REPORT
Editor Michael Lindemann
Vol. 1 No. 3 - Feb. 10, 1999 - Part 2
GSReport@aol.com