SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE for CANCER RESEARCH 
this is true whether or not the industrial use involves intentional release 
of the organism. Often it will be necessary to make portentious decisions 
in the absence of adequate scientific data; such essentially non-scientific 
judgments cannot fairly be left to industry or the research community, 
which have an understandable tendency to favor experimentation and the 
application of scientific findings. A more democratic decision-making 
mechanism is needed. It is urgent that a legal framework for public control 
of the technological applications of recombinant DNA be set up without 
delay, for industrial activity is underway and applications are imminent. 
Experience in other branches of technology indicates that controls will 
someday be necessary; in fairness to both industry and the public, we should 
not wait until the need is palpable before instituting procedures that may 
avoid future disasters. Preoccupation with guidelines for academic research 
should not be allowed to divert attention from the more serious aspects 
of the recombinant DNA problem. 
DONALD S. WALKER LABORATORY, 145 BOSTON POST RD., RYE, N . Y. 105S0 
/K 
OWENS 8-1100 
- 2 - 
Yours sincerely, 
c 
Liebe F. Cavalieri, Ph. D. 
Member, Sloan-Kettering Institute 
Professor of Biochemistry, Cornell 
University Graduate School of Medical 
Sciences 
Bdl uui u ii. iwaciiuci y, i 1 1 • u • 
Associate Member, Sloan-Kettering Institute 
Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Cornell 
University Graduate School of Medical 
Sciences 
LFC:BHR:mb 
[Appendix A — 230] 
RESEARCH UNIT OF MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER 
