Rethinking women and their bodies in the age of biotechnology: Feminist commentaries on the Hwang Affair

Many Korean women felt strongly positive about donating their eggs for Hwang Woo Suk's research, in spite of the fact that Hwang was accused of fraud. It is said that there is a kind of unique 'egg donation culture' among Korean women, which urged them to donate their eggs for his research. However, positing such a Korean 'egg donation culture' does not seem to give a sufficient explanation of why so many Korean women were seemingly willing to provide their own eggs for Hwang's research. Instead, we suggest that egg donation issues in the Hwang affair can be interpreted under the paradoxical context, in which Korean women are situated in the age of biotechnology. On the one hand, the invisibility of women as subjects in the public sphere led to their lack of social control over ova trafficking and made it possible for a huge number of eggs to be supplied secretly for Hwang's team. The patriarchal structure of family, the myth of economic growth, and the restricted activities of feminist organizations are possible contributors to the invisibility of Korean women. On the other hand, in the practices of bodily technologies such as cosmetic surgery and reproductive technologies, Korean women have been highly visible. With the help of those technological instruments, women have been empowered to own their own bodies and to have them at their disposal. We argue that these dualistic realities of women as egg owners can explain the egg donation culture among Korean women in the Hwang affair.