Attachment III - Page 1 
Suwroary of Coninittee Actions , Report to RAC 
At the April 1981 RAC meeting, a vrorking group was established to consider 
major revisions of the recombinant ENA Guidelines, The working group, 
appointed by RAC chairman Ray Thornton, consists of 13 members, 9 of whom 
were RAC members as of June 1980 (2 have since ended their terms), 2 liaison 
RAC members, and 2 other scientists who have had long involvarent with 
the recombinant DNA issue. The list of members is attached. The working 
group is chaired by Susan Qottesman. TVro meetings were held: one on 
June 1, 1981, at which 8 members were present, and one on July 9, 1981, at 
which 11 members were present. Minutes of both meetings are available. 
There was a clear consensus by the wor)d.ng group that some major restruc- 
turing of the guidelines was appropriate. There was major disagreement 
about how far such a revision should go. The basic issues are: 1) Are 
there qualitatively inique dangers associated with Recombinant DMA research? 
and 2) If so, what response is necessary for guarding against such hazards; 
is some special procedure required? If there are not qualitatively unique 
dangers involved, are the remaining ris)cs adequately addressed by already 
existing procedures for dealing with research dangers? If not, should one 
use the recombinant DNA issue to develop appropriate procedures for the 
more general issues? 
After an einalysis of the risks (detailed in the accompanying document), 
the following genered conclusions were reached: 
1) Accidental combinations of genes, rising out of "shotgun" clorring 
experiments or experiments where expression is not specifically 
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