24 
other provisions of Title I. The evaluation will determine whether 
the controls should extend beyond the initial period. Second, the Com- 
mission must undertake a sort of “technology assessment” of long 
range applications of recombinant DNA research discoveries and 
techniques. 
With respect to the first of these two studies, the committee amended 
the phrase “the risk to health and the environment presented” to read 
“such risks to health and the environment as may be presented” to 
indicate that it is not presumed that such risks have been shown to be 
conclusive as of this time. In fact the risks, if any, are currently 
unknown. 
Science Policy Issues 
Regarding the second study, the Committee made several amend- 
ments to the bill. The controversy over recombinant DNA research 
has provided a unique opportunity to explore the interaction between 
the pursuit of basic research and public concerns over health, safety 
and the social and environmental effects of applying recombinant DNA 
techniques. The committee believes. that the lessons of this experience 
could be of great benefit in the future development of science policy 
at both the local and F ederal level. 
The expansion of the scope of the Commission’s duties to consider 
“the significance of lessons learned through recombinant DNA research 
and its allied science policy issues” is thus an important addition. In 
its extensive hearings on the “Science Policy Implications of DNA 
Recombinant Molecule Research”, the Subcommittee on Science, Re- 
search, and Technology, noted as a major finding that all parties, 
government and non-government, need to maintain an awareness of the 
evolution of new methods, models, and institutions for resolving public 
policy questions. 
In this context, many issues are confronted, including the constitu- 
tional basis of regulation of basic or applied research ; balancing the 
need to insure safe conduct of research against implied first amend- 
ment rights of free inquiry; the need to anticipate social, ethical, 
economic and environmental consequences of research or its applica- 
tion; methods for improving communication between the scientific 
community and the general public ; techniques, short of direct regula- 
tion, for alerting society to potentially hazardous areas of basic and 
applied research ; determination of various points on the “pure-applied 
research continuum” at which different degrees of public involvement 
may be appropriate ; investigation of the ability of the public to assim- 
ilate scientific concepts when required to develop public policy; the 
legitimacy of, as well as techniques for, public involvement in the 
stimulation and regulation of basic and applied research ; the improve- 
ment of risk and benefit assessments ; determination of the appropriate 
level of governmental and public involvement in research regulation 
when necessary ; the relative efficiencies of peer review and public 
review of the risks and benefits of research ; techniques for respond- 
ing to warnings by scientists concerning possible dangers arising from 
research ; and the improvement of predictive assessments to determine 
if untried technological alternatives should be pursued. 
As previously noted, the Commission does not have the time or the 
resources to examine every issue. Those salient to the interaction of 
[Appendix B — 212] 
