Page 32 of Attachment E 
Three members of COGENE, Drs. J. Tooze, W.J. Whelan and A.M. 
Skalka, were present at the December public meeting. Following is a 
short report of the proceedings by A.M. Skalka: 
Special Meeting of the Advisory Committee 
to the Director, NIH, to Discuss Draft Proposed 
Revised Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Research 
On December 15-16, 1977, I attended this open meeting which took 
place at the NIH in Bethesda. 
The meeting was attended by many spectators including members of 
the press, members of Congress, the NIH Recombinant DNA Molecule 
Advisory Committee (RAC), foreign visitors and scientists from the NIH. 
Dr. Frederickson presided and the text of his opening remarks was 
available. In addition, to the permanent members of the Advisory 
Committee to the Director, many ad hoc members were added for this 
meeting in order to insure as diverse a representation of background 
and opinion as possible. Thus, the membership included lawyers, a 
representative from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a professor 
of theological ethics, student and technician members of two local 
Biohazard Committees as well as scientists from many disciplines. The 
invited witnesses were also chosen to represent a broad spectrum. Not 
listed but present and quite vocal was Ms. Francine Simnng of “ Friends 
of the Earth". In addition, several public witnesses not listed also spoke. 
Among these were: Dr. James Watson of the Cold Spring Harbor 
Laboratory, Dr. Jonathan King of MIT, Dr. Waclaw Szybalski of the 
University of Wisconsin, Dr. John Tooze of the European Molecular 
Biology Organization, and myself. A great deal of material was provided 
to invited guests and participants for their review before the meeting. 
The information included the “ NIH Environmental Impact Statement on 
NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules", a 
“ Report of the Federal Interagency Committee on Recombinant DNA 
Research: International Activities", a pamphlet entitled, “ Background 
on the Proposed Revisions (9/27/77) of the NIH Guidelines for Research 
Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules" as well as two booklets con- 
taining a collection of letters received by Dr. Fredrickson with com- 
ments on the proposed revised Guidelines. 
The various sections of the proposed revised Guidelines were 
discussed in turn. After a general discussion of the changes and the 
reasons for them, there were five-minute presentations by invited wit- 
nesses. Questions on the “ Introduction " focused primarily on the new 
definition. Several changes were suggested to make the definition more 
precise. Comments from invited and public witnessess followed ex- 
pected lines. Representatives of the “ Sierra Club", “ Friends of the 
Earth" and the “ Environmental Defense Fund" took this opportunity to 
voice their opposition to any loosening of the Guidelines and to call 
for enactment of federal legislation. Comments from others, including 
scientists from the United States and abroad, stressed the necessity for 
revision to keep the Guidelines abreast of new knowledge. 
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