20 
The NIH committee, beginning with the draft guidelines prepared 
by the Hogness subcommittee, prepared proposed guidelines for 
research with recombinant DNA molecules at its third meeting, held 
on July 18-19, 1975, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
Following this meeting, many letters were received which were 
critical of the guidelines. The majority of critics felt that they were 
too lax, others that they were too strict. The committee reviewed all 
letters, and a new subcommittee, chaired by Dr. Elizabeth Kutter, 
was appointed to revise the guidelines. 
A fourth committee meeting was held on December 4-5, 1975, 
in La Jolla, California. For this meeting a "variorum edition" had 
been prepared, comparing line-for-line the Hogness, Woods Hole, 
and Kutter guidelines. The committee reviewed these, voting item -by- 
item for their preference among the three variations and, in many 
cases, adding new material. The result was the "Proposed Guidelines 
for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules, ' which were 
referred to the Director, NIH, for a final decision in December 1975. 
Public Meeting of the NIH Director's Advisory Committee . The 
Director of the National Institutes of Health called a special meeting 
of the Advisory Committee to the Director to review these proposed 
guidelines. The meeting was held at NIH, Bethesda, on February 9-10, 
1976. The Advisory Committee is charged to advise the Director, 
NIH, on matters relating to the broad setting--scientific, technological, 
and socioeconomic --in which the continuing development of the bio- 
medical sciences, education for the health professions, and biomedical 
communications must take place, and to advise on their implications 
for NIH policy, program development, resource allocation, and 
administration. The members of the committee are knowledgeable in 
the fields of basic and clinical biomedical sciences, the social sciences, 
physical sciences, research, education, and communications. In addition 
to current members of the committee, the Director, NIH, invited a 
number of former committee members as well as other scientific and 
public representatives to participate in the special February session. 
The purpose of the meeting was to seek the committee's advice on 
the guidelines proposed by the Recombinant Advisory Committee. The 
Advisory Committee to the Director was asked whether, in their 
judgment, the guidelines balanced scientific responsibility to the public 
with scientific freedom to pursue new knowledge. 
