HARRISON A. WILLIAMS. JR., NJ., CHAIRMAN 
JENNINGS RANDOLPH. W. VA. 
CLAIBORNE PELL. R.l. 
EDWARD M. KENNEDY. MASS. 
OAYLORO NELSON. WlS. 
WALTER P. MONOALE, MINN. 
THOMAS F. EAGLE TON. MO. 
ALAN CRANSTON. CALIF. 
WILLIAM O. HATHAWAY, MAINE 
JOHN A. DURKIN, N.H. 
ROBERT TAFT, JR., OHIO 
J. GLENN BEALL. JR.. MO. 
ROBERT T. STAFFORD. VT. 
PAUL LAXALT, NEV. 
JACOB K. JAVITS. N.V. 
RICHARD S. SCHWEIKER, PA. 
'UlCwfec* J&ictlas Genetic 
COMMITTEE ON 
LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE 
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20310 
DONALD EUSBURO. GENERAL COi/NSEL 
MARJORIE M. WHITTAKER, CHIEF CLERK 
July 19, 1976 
The President 
The White House 
Washington, D.C. 
Dear Mr. President: 
For several years, the biomedical research community has 
been engaged in an extremely important debate over the safety 
of certain types of genetic research. The research involves 
combining genetic material from different organisms. The 
technology that permits this type of genetic experimentation, 
called recombinant DNA research, is revolutionary, and holds the 
promise of enormous benefits in our understanding of disease 
processes, and could lead us to ways of controlling or treating 
complex diseases such as cancer and hereditary defects. It could 
conceivably lead to improved ways of producing such important 
hormones as insulin, clotting factors, and enzymes important 
to treatment of many diseases. The technology also has conceivable 
applications in agriculture and industry. Clearly, it is a 
research area of enormous promise. 
However, recombinant DNA research also entails unknown but 
potentially enormous risks due to the possibility that micro- 
organisms with transplanted genes might prove hazardous to human 
and other forms of life--and might escape from the laboratory. 
Indeed, scientists engaged in such research declared a voluntary 
moratorium on recombinant DNA research in 1974 when they foresaw 
the possibility, for example, of creating in the laboratory self- 
propagating infectious bacteria that contain genes from cancer- 
causing viruses. The moratorium was lifted in 1975, but maintained, 
again by the researchers themselves, for the specific types of 
experiment which might produce cancer- caus ing bacteria, raise the 
resistance of antibiotics of known bacteria, or have other 
dangerous results. 
On June 23rd of this year, the National Institutes of Health 
issued comprehensive guidelines for recombinant DNA research 
which specify more stringent safety and containment measures 
than are currently required or practiced in many areas. They 
specifically prohibit the most potentially dangerous types of 
experiments. In addition, the guidelines prohibit the release 
into the air or water or environment of any of the genetic 
materials created by the research. 
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