South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who admitted to falsifying stem cell data in a 2005 paper

The scientist testified in a trial in which he is accused of accepting funds under false pretenses, embezzlement and violating the law by purchasing human eggs for research.

If convicted, Hwang faces at least three years in prison.

For a 2005 paper in the journal Science, Hwang acknowledged that he told researchers to make it look like they were basing their results on 11 cloned embryonic stem cell lines, rather than the two lines he believed they had.

Still, he said his researchers share the blame.

"It was definitely wrong," Hwang testified. "I have no intention to escape the responsibility, but I feel differently about the view that all responsibility should lie with me as one of over 30 authors" of the study.

Seoul National University, where Hwang used to work, fired him earlier this year after concluding that his claims to have created the world's first stem cells from cloned human embryos were fabricated.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 8, 2006
(C) All rights reserved