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This article reports that South Korean cloning researcher Woo Suk Hwang has asked the journal "Science" to retract his celebrated paper reporting the creation of embryonic stem (ES) cells from 11 patients suffering from diabetes, an immune system disease, and spinal cord injury. But as "Science" went to press, Hwang was insisting that, contrary to the claims of a collaborator, his team succeeded in creating these patient-specific stem cells and that they intend to replicate their results. Pressure on Hwang and his group has been growing as scientists and the press have raised questions about the evidence presented in the paper, first published online in May this year. In the 2005 paper, another group led by Hwang reported that they had established 11 ES cell lines from embryos cloned from patients, a step toward someday making genetically matched replacement tissue. But in early December 2005 on a Korean Web site, an anonymous writer, who claims to be a life scientist, pointed out duplications in some of the photographs of ES cells published in the 2005 paper. According to a "Science" statement, a few hours later Hwang notified "Science"'s editorial offices of what he called an unintentional error that led to about 4 pictures being used redundantly.