6 
give guidance and not be enforced, rather than rules. He cited sene of the 
history lee^iing to the issuance of mandatory guidelines in 1976. Dr. Zinder 
said that if Part IV is retained in the revised Guidelines, there should be 
a strong justification for retaining it stated in a position paper. He said 
that he prefers that the Guidelines be rescinded and replaced with a simple 
reoon«nendati:n. He said that said that if scientists are to be encouraged to 
speak up in the future about conjectured risks, they must be shown that when 
interim regulation is subsequently sho%rfn to be superfluous, it can be removed. 
Dr. Baltimore said that the Baltimo re-Campbell proposed was a compromise 
between scientific judgment that there is no justification for Guidelines 
being other than a code of accepted practice, and the necessity for consider- 
ing political and social factors. Their proposal retained the prohibitions, 
which he said are one of the most noted parts of the Guidelines. It has been 
argued that the RAC should not consider political and social factors; however, 
a:. Bedtimore did not agree. He said that the prohibitions have less and less 
justification and that he fir>ds no difficulty in accepting the Working Group's 
recommendation regarding elimination of prohibited experiments, except for 
elimination of the prohibition against acquisition of a drijg resistance trait 
in those cases in which such acquisition could compremise the use of a drug to 
control disease agents in himan or veterinary medicine or agriculture. Con- 
cerned scientists originally proposed guidelines meaning only guidance and not 
regulations; the RAC will have to decide the future course of the Guidelines. 
He noted that there apparently alreexJy is general agreement in the RAC on 
modifying Part III dealing with containment levels and agreement on retaining 
the exemptions. The issue is Part IV of the Guidelines. He said that he 
feels that it is anomalous to retain the current procedures section of the 
Guidelines. However, political and social issues need to be considered. If 
the Pedered government pulled completely out of the issue, local governments 
might well overreact. The Federal government needs to provide surveillance, 
a forxm for considering questions, and an office where inquiries can be 
authoritatively answered. Therefore, naintenance of the RAC, ORDA, and 
abbreviated guidelines are necessary. Ik:. Baltimore expressed support for 
the original Baltimore-Campbell proposal, with some modifications based on 
the working Group recommendations. Dr. Zinder said that if Guidelines are 
to be retained, it is for political and socied reasons. However the political 
climate has changed. In New York State, which previously passed a law regu- 
lating recombinant CNA research, a bill has been introduced to repeal the 
law based on the assertion that the medical institutions which perform such 
research in New York State have proven to be trustworthy. 
Dr. Nightingale said that she agrees with most of what Dr. Baltimore said. 
In order to implement sound public policy there are three basic ingredients: 
knowledge base, commitment of leadership, and appropriate social strategy. 
She said that in this case there is much agreement on the knowledge base and 
that there is need for change and the direction of that change. There is more 
disagreement on the appropriate social strategy. Having Federcd involvement 
is one method of tempering local extremism. 
[ 197 ) 
