Monday, January 16, 2006
Editorial: Stem cell scandal validates science
Fraud and mistakes are nearly always uncovered by the rigors of the scientific method.
The revelation that "breakthrough" research on embryonic stem cells by a South Korean scientist was based on fake data is, ironically enough, validation -- not condemnation -- of the scientific process.
Yes, fraud and mistakes happen in science, as they do in nearly every human endeavor. But science diligently practiced, unlike many other human enterprises, is nearly always self-correcting.
When scientists publish their findings, they include the exact methodology used to achieve their results, allowing others within the scientific community to attempt to replicate the experiments.
Such scrutiny ensures that mistakes, or fraud, eventually will be exposed.
That's not to say the fraud perpetrated by South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk -- who falsely claimed to have extracted stem cell colonies from cloned human embryos -- did not damage the cause of science. It did, immensely, a transgression for which Hwang issued a public apology last week.
In the two years before the scientific validation rooted out the fraud, legitimate researchers lost valuable time and exhausted needless effort in the vain hope of actually accomplishing what Hwang lied about achieving.
When Hwang's announcement made others in the field look like also-rans, funding dried up, Robert Lanza, medical director of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., a private researcher, told The Washington Post.
That, unfortunately, is one of the consequences of President Bush's ban on federal funding for stem cell research. Left to the private sector, research funding will seek outcomes that produce financial profit to justify the investment, not scientific knowledge and understanding for their more intrinsic value in improving the human condition.
With the truth revealed, Lanza said, "The race is back on, and the United States has a second chance to do it right and win."
The two-year delay is also crushing news for people with diseases that perhaps could be treated successfully by the eventual fruits of legitimate stem cell research.
Hwang failed those people, the researchers whose work he sidetracked and the South Korean government that supported him.
In the end, the scandal affirms the validity and ultimate reliability of the centuries-old scientific process.
