THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY 
12 30 YORK AVENUE • NEW YORK, NEW YORK 100 21 
October 30, 1978 
Donald S. Fredrickson 
Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
One of my colleagues at Rockefeller University showed 
me yesterday his copy of "Comments of the Natural Resources 
Defense Council, Inc. on the Proposed Revision of The National 
Institues of Health's Guidelines on Recombinant DNA Research," 
which was mailed to you on September 19, 1978. As I am a member 
of the Board of Trustees of NRDC, you may have assumed that 
I had been consulted about the preparation of this document 
and that I am in favor of its recommendations. But this is 
not the case. I had no idea that NRDC was involved in the 
Recombinant DNA problem, for which it has no competence. I 
find the text of the "Comments..." misleading because it is 
grossly unbalanced, and displays a complete lack of understanding 
of laboratory practices. The recommendations would make more 
sense if they recommended a complete interruption of DNA 
Recombinant Research. 
On several occasions during the past two years, I have 
publicly stated that 
a) the clangers of DNA recombinant research have been 
greatly exaggerated and can be avoided by commonsense labor- 
atory techniques , and 
b) this kind of research is so promising of important 
theoretical and practical results that it would be an anti- 
social act to paralyze it by useless regulations. My views 
on these matters have been presented in widely-read publications 
such as 
— the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, a piece 
entitled "Genetic Engineering" in April, 1977. 
— my book The Professor, The Institute and DNA (Rocke- 
feller University Press, 19 76), p. 22 8. 
Failure on the part of NRDC to communicate with me — 
a member of its Board of Trustees familiar with the technical 
aspects of recombinant DNA research — reveals either an irrespon- 
sible lack of familiarity with the literature in this field, or 
for intellectual dishonesty in using my name for a cause that 
I regard as ridiculous . 
For these reasons, I am resigning today my membership 
in the Board of Trustees of NRDC. 
[A-448] 
J 
