72 
will continue multiplying to the end of 
time? And it will eventually get into hu- 
man beings and animals despite all the 
precautions of containment. What is in- 
side will be outside. Here I am given the 
assurance that the work will be done 
with enfeebled lambda and with modi- 
fied. defective E. coli strains that cannot 
live in the intestine. But how about the 
exchange of genetic material in the gut? 
How can we be sure what would happen 
once the little beasts escaped from the 
laboratory? Let me quote once more 
from the respected textbook (/): “In- 
deed. the possibility cannot be dismissed 
that genetic recombination in the in- 
testinal tract may even cause harmless 
enteric bacilli occasionally to become 
virulent." I am thinking, how'ever. of 
something much worse than virulence. 
We are playing with hotter fires. 
It is not surprising, but it is regrettable 
that the groups that entrusted them- 
selves with the formulation of “guide- 
lines.” as well as the several advisory 
committees, consisted exclusively, oral- 
most exclusively, of advocates of this 
form of genetic experimentation. Whal 
seems to have been disregarded com- 
pletely is that we are dealing here much 
more with an ethical problem than with 
one in public health, and that the princi- 
pal question to be answered is whether 
we have the right to put an additional 
fearful load on generations that are not 
yet born. I use the adjective “addition- 
al" in view of the unresolved and equally 
fearful problem of the disposal of nuclear 
waste. Our time is cursed with the neces- 
sity for feeble men. masquerading as ex- 
perts. to make enormously far-reaching 
decisions. Is there anything more far- 
reaching than the creation of new forms 
of life? 
Recognizing that the National Insti- 
tutes of Health are not equipped to deal 
with a dilemma of such import. I can 
only hope against hope for congressional 
action. One could, for instance, envision 
the follow ing steps: (i) a complete prohi- 
bition of the use of bacterial hosts that 
arc indigenous to man; (ii) the creation of 
an authority, truly representative of the 
population of this country, that would 
support and license research on less ob- 
jectionable hosts and procedures: (iiil 
all forms of “genetic engineering” re- 
maining a federal monopoly; (iv) all re- 
search eventually being carried out in 
one place, such as Fort Detrick. It is 
clear that a moratorium of some sort will 
have to precede the erection of legal 
safeguards. 
But beyond all this, there arises a gen- 
eral problem of the greatest significance, 
namely, the awesome irreversibility of 
what is being contemplated. You can 
stop splitting the atom; you can stop 
visiting the moon; you can stop using 
aerosols; you may even decide not to kill 
entire populations by the use of a few 
bombs. But you cannot recall a new form 
of life. Once you have constructed a 
viable E. coli cell carrying a plasmid 
DNA into which a piece of eukaryotic 
DNA has been spliced, it will survive 
you and your children and your chil- 
dren's children. An irreversible attack 
on the biosphere is something so un- 
heard-of. so unthinkable to previous gen- 
erations. that I could only w ish that mine 
had not been guilty of it. The hybridiza- 
tion of Prometheus with Herostratus is 
bound to give evil results. 
Most of the experimental results pub- 
lished so far in this field are actually 
quite unconvincing. We understand very 
little about eukaryotic DNA. The signifi- 
cance of spacer regions, repetitive se- 
quences, and. for that matter, of hetero- 
chromatin is not yet fully understood. It 
appears that the recombination experi- 
ments in which a piece of animal DNA is 
incorporated into the DNA of a micro- 
bial plasmid are being performed without 
a full appreciation of what is going on. Is 
the position of one gene with respect to 
its neighbors on the DNA chain acciden- 
tal or do they control and regulate each 
other? Can we be sure — to mention one 
fantastic improbability — that the gene 
for a given protein hormone, operative 
only in certain specialized cells, does not 
become carcinogenic when introduced 
naked into the intestine? Are we wise in 
getting ready to mix up what nature has 
kept apart, namely the genomes of eu- 
karyotic and prokaryotic cells? 
The worst is that we shall never know. 
Bacteria and viruses have always formed 
a most effective biological underground. 
The guerilla warfare through which they 
