17 
Compliance with the voluntary deferral of the experiments listed 
as Type 1 and Type 2 in the 1974 letters appears to have been essentially 
universal within the international scientific community. The evidence 
for this conclusion comes both from the informal communications network 
among scientists in relevant fields and from inspection of publications 
appearing in' scientific journals during and subsequent to the period 
in which the voluntary deferral was in force. 
On October 7, 1974, the NIH Recombinant DNA Molecule Program 
Advisory Committee (hereafter "Recombinant Advisory Committee") 
was established to advise the Secretary of HEW, the Assistant Secretary 
for Health, and the Director of NIH "concerning a program for devel- 
oping procedures which will minimize the spread of such molecules 
within human and other populations, and for devising guidelines to be 
followed by investigators working with potentially hazardous recom- 
binants. "* 
Asilomar . The international meeting proposed in the Science article 
(8) was held in February 1975 at the Asilomar Conference Center, 
Pacific Grove, California. It was sponsored by the National Academy 
of Sciences and supported by the National Institutes of Health and the 
National Science Foundation. One hundred and fifty people attended, 
including 52 foreign scientists from 15 countries, 16 representatives 
of the press, and 4 attorneys. 
*The use of the term "program" in the name of this Committee 
and in its charter has been confusing. It refers to a program for 
developing procedures that will minimize the spread of recombinant 
DNA molecules --that is, the safety aspects of recombinant DNA 
research- -and not to a program of recombinant DNA research itself. 
Recombinant DNA technology is essentially a tool used in many pro- 
grams, funded from many sources. In this sense, it is analogous to 
a new instrument or radioisotopes. For example, there are NIH -funded 
recombinant DNA projects as part of the genetics program of the 
National Institute of General Medical Sciences, as part of the micro- 
biology and infectious diseases program of the National Institute of 
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as part of the biological research 
program of the National Cancer Institute, and as part of the intramural 
research program of the National Institute of Child Health and Human 
Development. 
