Seoul: South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk, who has violated ethical rules by creating the first cloned human embryo using eggs from his team members, has resigned from his post and taken full responsibility for his actions.
According to Hwang, the researchers in his team had donated their own eggs without his permission.
During the research, women were also paid for eggs used in his breakthrough project without his knowledge.
Hwang, the first man to clone the human embryo, admitted that he had lied when ethical questions began to surface last year about the origin of the supply of human eggs available to his researchers.
"I feel sorry to speak about such shameful and miserable things," he said in his first public comments on a scandal that has been brewing for months.
Hwang has resigned from all official posts including the chairmanship of a new research body, the World Stem Cell Hub.
The research body was established in October by the government to produce stem cell lines for research institutes worldwide.
However, Hwang said that he would continue his own trail-blazing research.
A Ministry of Health and Welfare spokesman said that there were no breaches of legal or ethical standards in the course of obtaining human eggs for the research.
In February, 2004, Hwang and his team announced the first-ever cloning of human embryos, from which they harvested 'therapeutic' embryonic stem cells.
In 2005 they unveiled the world's first cloned dog.
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