During December 2005, there was an investigation that was

conducted at the Seoul National University (SNA), South Korea

had observed that the scientist named Hwang Woo Suk was

responsible for fabricating the results on the deriving of the

patient-matched stem cells out of the cloned embryos. This was

the major setback in this field. During May 2005, Hwang

made an announcement that a major advance in the creation

of the human embryos in using the various cloning methods as

well as in the isolation of human stem cells out of the cloned

embryos. The series of developments and the advancements

have contributed significantly to the existing debate during the

109

th Congress upon the ethical and moral implications of

cloning of the human beings. The medical scientists in various

other labs, like the University of California at San Francisco and

the Harvard University intended to produce the cloned embryos

of human beings such as for deriving the stem cells for several

medical researches on Parkinson's disease, diabetes and several

other diseases and illness.

President Bush had made an announcement during August

2001 that it was the first time that the federal funds will be

used for supporting the research on the human embryonic

stem cells. However, funding could be limited or restricted to

the existing human stem cell lines. The federal funds would not

be utilized for the human embryonic cloning for any kind of

purpose including the research of the stem cell. During July

2002, the Council on Bioethics of the President had unveiled its

report upon human cloning and its research that had

suggested a ban on reproductive ways of cloning and a 4 year

moratorium on human cloning for the purpose of medical

research. The ethical problems or issues that were surrounding

the reproductive cloning process including relief of suffering or

moral status of the embryos had impacted several proposals for

bans, regulation, restrictions, and various uses of funding.

During January 2002, National Academies had released the

"Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive

Cloning". This proposal had suggested that the ban by the

United States on the human cloning was aimed at the creation

of a child. This also suggested that the ban should be enforced

and would carry substantial penalties. The panel had noted the

ban should be restated within a span of 5 years. However,

panel had decided that cloning for the production of stem cells

should be made permissible due to the presence of great

potential for the development of several therapies and the

advancement of the biomedical knowledge.