Profile: Hwang Woo-Suk

Title: Profile: Hwang Woo-Suk
Publication Info: BBC News
Date: 11 September 2011
Class: Theory of Knowledge
Category: In Class

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/

         

            In this article, it talks about a Korean scientist, named Hwang Woo-Suk who claimed to have cloned a human embryo for the first time. However, after investigation, it was declared that his results had been changed and that he had used unethical manners to conduct his experiment, violating two of Robert Merton’s scientific norms of disinterestedness and communalism. [Connection] His previous successes had given him authority and trust in the scientific field as he had cloned animals [could have provoked appeal to authority - fallacy], but due to this incident, he was deprived of fame, wealth, and credibility.

            He stated that he had been deceived by his staff members. However, no one believed him and thought he was covering his act up. How do we know that he was lying? [Knowledge Issue] It was said that the female researchers had supplied the eggs for the experiment. Perhaps they were lying about this, but because this seems so horrible and provokes emotion of anger, pity, and shock, the people are more inclined to believe the female researchers rather than Hwang Woo-Suk who may or may not have been telling the truth. If this was the case, then there was a case of [appeal to emotion – another fallacy]. Do people believe this point of view because BBC is a renowned news broadcasting organization? [Appeal to authority –fallacy] If these fallacies were all taken into account, then how guilty is Hwang Woo-Suk? Would he still be punished as he broke the scientific norms? Was he punished because he broke the scientific norms or because he was charged with practicing unethical methods? [Wonderings]