Abstract
Time magazine chooses its Person of the Year not on the basis of positive contributions, but as a reflection of the degree to which that individual influenced events over the past year. Perhaps the winner of The Lancet's Paper of the Year, 2005, should be selected with the same criteria? There is little doubt that the two most controversial papers of 2005 were Hwang Woo-suk's articles in Science. 1 Hwang WS Ryu YJ Park JH et al. Evidence of a pluripotent human embryonic stem cell line derived from a cloned blastocyst. Science. 2004; 303: 1669-1674 Crossref PubMed Scopus (595) Google Scholar , 2 Hwang WS Roh SI Lee BC et al. Patient-specific embryonic stem cells derived from human SCNT blastocysts. Science. 2005; 308: 1777-1783 Crossref PubMed Scopus (382) Google Scholar Hwang's research captured the world's imagination and engaged individuals in a debate about the direction society wants stem-cell research to take. Views were strongly divided along cultural and religious lines, yet all were united in swift condemnation when Hwang's deceit was uncovered. Although the sun may have set on Hwang's research career, his papers will continue to cast a shadow over public confidence in each of us associated with the research process, from academic referees and ethical committees, to publishers.
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