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IV. Conclusion 
This much is clear: the international scientific community is 
in substantial agreement that, until the potential hazards of recombi- 
nant DNA techniques are better understood, a common set of standards 
must everywhere exist for the use of those techniques. The question 
being debated now is how this is to be accomplished . 
In attempting to settle a question such as this, it is natural 
for society to look first along lines of maximum common boundaries of 
governance or law. For recombinant work, these have so far been 
national boundaries. The United States and the United Kingdom were 
first to develop guidelines; Western Europe, acting initially as 
individual nations, is beginning to organize a common process; and 
now Canada has issued a set of guidelines. The substance of all 
guidelines is sufficiently similar; how to apply them locally and 
nationally remains the issue. 
In the United States, this question has attracted far more public 
attention than in other countries. A number of local jurisdictions or 
states are engaged in action or debate. Federal action would assure 
commonality, if commonality is desirable. 
A final point to bear in mind is that changes in DNA — the nucleic 
acid that is present in all living organisms and determines their 
inherited characteristics — also occur spontaneously in nature: they 
have made possible the never-ending process of evolution. We are as 
we are as the result of a long series of changes in the DNA of our 
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