At the beginning of December, Hwang disclosed that some of the eggs came from two women working in his lab, and that other “donors” had been paid for their eggs – a breach of ethical guidelines that had nothing to do with the accuracy of the science. But then Hwang’s collaborators began questioning the validity of the experiment itself, and Hwang notified Science that he wished to withdraw the paper.
12月初，黄禹锡披露，其中某些卵子来自于在其实验室工作的两名妇女，而且，其他“捐献者”也为她们的卵子而得到报酬。这违反了伦理标准，而与科学准确与否无关。但是，黄禹锡的同僚们随后又开始质疑实验本身的准确性，而黄通知&lt;&lt;科学&gt;&gt;杂志表明希望撤回论文。在本文写作之时，他仍然为其工作的准确性辩护，同时承认在保持干细胞株时出现了“人为错误”，包括受到真菌感染。据报道，他甚至暗示对某些细胞做了手脚。