S. Korea passes law limiting donation of female ova

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- The government said Tuesday it will put into effect a law that limits the number of times a woman can donate ova, starting next month.

The revised life ethics and safety law passed by the Cabinet limits ova donation
to three times for each woman during her lifetime.
It also bans ova donation within six months of a previous donation to prevent any
possible side effects from the procedure.
The new rules that come into force as of Dec. 6, however, do not include
extraction of ova for personal use at fertility clinics.
The government also said that it will tighten regulatory control over
institutional review boards (IRBs) of schools and laboratories.
It said only institutions designated by the health and welfare ministry may
evaluate IRBs.
The measures reflect efforts by the country to prevent a recurrence of the
embarrassment caused by disgraced cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk in 2006.
The former Seoul National University (SNU) scientist claimed his team produced
the first cloned human embryo for research and produced patent-specific embryonic
stem cells. The findings published in major scientific journals in 2004 and 2005
were later shown to be based on false data.
At that time, SNU's IRB received criticism for not properly overseeing actions
taken by Hwang's team, which involved the excessive extraction of ova from female
volunteers.