2 
Lapp£ 
It was against this background of concern that the present 
guidelines emerged. On July 7, 1976, after over two years of care- 
ful deliberation and debate, the National Institutes of Health 
published Its final recommendations for Guidelines under which DNA 
recombinant research could be conducted. Shortly afterwards, on 
August 19th, the first draft on an Environmental Impact Statement 
appeared under Che signature of NIH Director Donald Fredrickson. 
The reasons for this enterprise are spelled out In the very first 
page of the Impact statement: "The scientific community must have 
Che public's confidence that the goals of this profoundly Important 
research accord respect to important ethical, legal, and social 
values of our society." 
How fully do the accompanying dociiments and their support 
sections fulfill this charge? In a phrase, not at all. Instead 
of a carefully weighed consideration of social goals In science and 
the appropriateness of different stratagems of risk-taking to reach 
them, the authors present a carefully constructed scenario for pro- 
ceeding towards the very research ends which were their objectives 
In the first place. The ostensible neutrality of the position 
statement Is compromised by the language used. In the environmental 
impact statement, a sentence appears which declares that "It Is 
widely anticipated that a variety of research — Impacting on health 
and other areas of human concern — will benefit from recombinant 
DNA .cchnology." No documentation Is given. 
Appendix K — 11 
