INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE 
national acaocmt or SCicnccs 
tioi constitution avCnuC washinoton. o. C. IOAIA 
September 24, 19P1 
Hay 'rtiomtor, J.D. 
President 
Arkansas State Lhivereity 
State Uhiversity, Arkansas 72467 
Dear Hay: 
I am writing to follow 15 ) on the HAC meeting of Septenber 10, 1961, and 
the action taken by R^C on the report of the subcoraiittee to review the 
guidelines. 
I still support the basic thrust of the suboonnit tee's report. I was 
against making the guidelines totally volisitary and voted so. Once H^C voted 
to convert the guidelines to a voluntary code of standard practice, I did 
favor moving ahead with getting public cosment on the matter. To this end, I 
strongly urge that OPDA place a notice in Science , JAMk , New Pigland Journal 
of Medicine and Nature (as well as other publications ^ou or others might 
think of) advising the readership of the proposal in question, of the issue of 
the Federal Register in t^ich the proposal is published, of how to obtain that 
issue of the Federal Register , and urging conne n te to be sent in. 
Even if publishing su<dt notices delays the pr oc e ed ings aonewhat, in siy 
view it is still necessary to do so. The broadening of solicitation of public 
ooc u ne n t is essential to proceeding responsibly. Ihe Federal Bsqister notice 
produces oooment moetly from scientists with vested interest . We need their 
input but we also need to go beyond that. 
I think the guidelines have served us well. Systeratic, step-wise 
dismantlement would fiennit finding out what happens at each step. Your good 
statement of September 10 «nphasizes that the piiblic has an interest in having 
suitable guidelines for pi±)licly funded research that raises issues sxKh as 
reooBbinant research does, and pehaps other kinds of research do or t#ill. 
It is therefore imperative to be as inf o rmed as possible about the opinions of 
^mrious publics (of scientists and non-scientists) before prcxse e ding with 
changing to a voluntary code of standard practice and ceasing the required 
tracking of recombinant IUfi, research by IBC's. 
If I can help in any wey, please let me know. 
Sincerely, 
Elena 0. Nightingale, M.D. , Fh.D 
Senior Program Officer 
oct William Gartland, Jr., Ih.D. 
(6151 
