A presidential committee has postponed a final vote on drafting ethical guidelines for stem cell research in the wake of the fraud scandal of Hwang Woo-suk.

The National Bioethics Committee on Thursday decided in a plenary session to delay writing presidential decrees and regulations governing the scope of stem cell research involving somatic cell nuclear transfer.

The committee agreed to hold further discussion on the matter.

One proposed measure would limit a woman from donating ova more than once a year and more than twice in her life for stem cell research.

The committee did decide, however, to prohibit DNA tests to detect dementia or obesity genes given the lack of scientific proof.