• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.185-207
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• 2012

Since the Hwang scandal, the South Korean state has expressed often-conflicting interests of encouraging stem cell research and the IVF industry to save the country and introducing the ethical regulation in conformity with "Global Standard." As the tightening ethical regulation of stem cell research has enervated the field of human Embryonic stem cell(hESC) research, somatic stem cells (re-)emerged as an alternative savior that could rescue the future of research communities, bio-industry, practicing doctors, patients and the nation itself from the crisis. The recent literature on Korean biotechnology, however, mainly focus on hESC and relatively little attention has been given to the rapidly growing field of research on somatic stem cells like hematopoietic stem cells(HSCs) or Adipose derived stem cells(ASCs). While the hESC therapy is often regarded as experimental and ethically controversial, the HSCs or Mesenchymal stem cell(MSC) therapies have already made their ways into people's everyday life through market without much public discussion. Many ordinary people in South Korea are familiar with the story of patients who survived leukemia with the HSCs treatment; the number of doctors who are actively marketing the ASCs therapies is on the rapid increase; the concept of cosmetic products made from ASCs is gaining popularity among consumers. In this context, this article argues that the current ethical debates solely focusing on hESC or on the state policy and research regulation are too limiting to fully illuminate the politics of stem cell technologies in South Korea.