Science crime. The Korean cloning scandal and the role of ethics

Today, Hwang Woo-Suk, the Korean stem cell researcher, stands for the most spectacular forgery scandal in biomedicine, if not in the history of science. Within a few weeks, his exposure as a stem cell forger has downsized the ‘pride of Korea’ into ‘the Hwang case’. Interpretations of this fraudulent forgery vary considerably. We demonstrate that new insights may be gained when discussing the Hwang case against the background of the establishment of a specific framing called ‘ethicising’. This term implies that contemporary struggles over how to govern scientific and technological advances are framed as ‘value conflicts’ that are characterised by specific conflict patterns and modes of negotiation and can be differentiated from ‘interest conflicts’ and ‘knowledge conflicts’.