-- While this latest news about Dr. Hwang is disconcerting, we need to remember that he is only one physician in a field of thousands working on important stem cell research. Now more than ever, it is important to continue research in all areas of this field, including embryo stem cell and therapeutic cloning. We support the importance of tighter peer review, due diligence and verification standards so that the hopes of patients are not dashed in such a way again. And, at the end of the day, we should remember that science won. A fraud was outed, and the system worked to bring that to light.

-- As it does with other kinds of promising technology and medical research issues, the federal government needs to embrace human embryonic stem cell and SCNT research, so that a sensible and meaningful regulatory structure could be imposed that would work to avoid such abuses in the field.

-- Because of the restrictions on stem cell research imposed by President Bush, the National Institutes of Health -- arguably the strongest research oversight system in the world -- has had to remain on the sidelines in this research. What we learned in Dr. Hwang's situation is what we've been warning about for years: If you don't allow the best American scientists to do the best research, with the finest oversight system in science, you force it overseas and into the private sector, and you get results like you're seeing now in South Korea. It's damaging to patients and it's bad for the field.