59 
that appears. Hence splicing DXA from a distant source into a bac- 
terium is not at all likely to produce a well-balanced, competitive set 
of genes, any more than inserting a random radio part would be likely 
to improve a watch. 
With these developments, the initially very cautious attitude of the 
scientific community has shifted dramatically. The bluntest critique 
has come from James Watson (who triggered the development of 
molecular biology by his discovery, with Francis Crick, of the struc- 
ure of DXA). Though he was one of those who first voiced caution, 
ae now urges that we abandon the whole expensive bureaucracy of 
guidelines and release the wasted time and money for solving real 
health problems. It seems almost certain that Watson will prove right. 
But meanwhile it also seems clear that public anxiety, generated ini- 
tially by scientists, cannot be reversed until the true nature of recombi- 
nant DXA research is widely understood. 
The recombinant DXA story illustrates a broader problem : how 
to handle public policj* issues that have a large technical content. If 
we wish to maximize beneficial research, without jeopardizing either 
public welfare or public confidence, we must find ways to work out 
more clearly the role of the community of experts in ascertaining the 
facts as objectively as possible, and the subsequent role of the broader 
public in making value judgments and policy decisions. For while 
the public has a right to know, it also has a right to be protected 
from false alarms. A useful model may be that of the medical pro- 
fession, which often has to consider alternative diagnoses in a case 
but also exercises discretion in avoiding premature discussion of un- 
proved possibilities that would unduly alarm the patient. Perhaps the 
scientific profession and the public are groping for a similar code. 
ATTACHMEXT B 
The Xobei.ist vs. tiie Film: Star 
RESTRICTIONS OX DXA RESEARCH ATTACKED 
(Bv J. D. Watson*) 
Until the last year, I never thought much about my allegiances. My 
parents were for Roosevelt and against the spoilage of our land by 
senseless land speculators or industrial giants who put steel mills where 
there had been sand dunes and the prairie warbler had nested. People 
who went on bird trips or camped in the national forests and wanted 
to save Mineral King were the right sort, while those who owned 
big yachts or stripped the rolling fields of Ohio for coal were the bad 
guys whom we must get laws to stop. So it was natural to make out a 
modest check whenever Robert Redford or some equally fine fellow 
asked you to help him defend the environment and fight the polluters 
who would give us more cancer. 
Xow. however. I must confess that I didn't respond to Robert Red- 
ford’s latest appeal. It is not that I am against him as a folk hero, 
but. though he must be unaware, he and I are. for practical purposes, 
real enemies. For some of the money he raises for the Environmental 
•Watson, director of the Cold Soring Harbor Laboratory In Xew York state, won a 1962 
Xobel Prize in medicine for his work on the structure of DNA. 
[Appendix B — 318] 
