Those Interested in Recombinant DNA 
June 4, 1976 
Page Three 
inherent in the method. Indeed, public concern aside, 
it seems likely that the balance of scientific judgment 
would be quite different were not the prospect of benefit 
both great and imminent. 
If that assessment is correct, or even nearly so, then it 
is essential to address squarely the nature of the. links 
among research, development, and commercial exploitation. 
It is not acceptable to justify taking the risks of pursu- 
ing a line of research by pointing to its benefits unless 
one is also willing to aid — or at least not inhibit — the 
process of bringing those benefits to fruition. The ability 
of a company to hold exclusive license for a long enough 
period of time to justify the risk of investment in the 
development of a product is an important part of that process. 
The value of a patent is precisely to make such a license 
possible. Those who argue that the patent-license process 
has adverse consequences so severe as to bar its use, must 
accept the responsibility of proposing feasible alternatives 
to assure useful development, or face the prospect of inhib- 
iting the very benefits that serve to justify the basic 
research. The obligation seems to me inescapable. 
Ill The University's Financial Condition 
While I do not believe that personal profit is a base or 
ignoble motive, it happens that no member of the Stanford 
faculty stands to be enriched personally as a result of 
this patent. The departments involved, the Medical School, 
and the University would be the beneficiaries of success. 
It is a fact that the financing of private universities is 
more difficult now than at any time in recent memory and 
that the most likely prediction for the future is that a 
hard struggle will be required to maintain their quality. 
I do not want to overstate the weight of this fact on the 
matter at hand, but neither should it be ignored. Clearly, 
there are things that we would not want Stanford to do , 
even though doing them might be profitable. To put the 
point as precisely as I can, we cannot lightly discard the 
possibility of significant income that is derived from 
activity that is legal, ethical, and not destructive of 
the values of the institution. 
IV Conflict of Interest and Public Policy 
As I indicated at the outset, the special force of the 
patent question for Stanford comes from the fact that 
Stanford scientists have been leaders both in the science 
of recombinant DNA and the public policy of the subject. 
A question of special moment, therefore, is whether their 
future impact on public policy would be diminished by the 
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