UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO 
BERKELEY • DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO 
SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ 
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94143 
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE 
September 26, 1984 
Dr William Gartland 
Executive Secretary 
Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Bill, 
As a member of the scientific community and in my professorial role, I 
wish to comment on Jeremy Rifkin's request to Bernard Talbot that his 
two submitted items be considered as addenda to the NIH Guidelines on 
Recombinant DNA Research. There are two issues on which I should like 
to focus. The first is the intent of Mr Rifkin's amendment, "to protect 
the biological integrity of every mammalian species." Although that 
phrase sounds nice, it has no meaning to me as a physician, biological 
scientist, or human being. Through evolution, which of course is an 
ongoing process, speciation and species have come and gone and there has 
been certainly no natural protection of their biological integrity other 
than the empirical observation that zygotes with vastly different numbers 
and structures of their parentally-derived chromosomes frequently do not 
segregate those chomosomes in a way consistent with viability. However, 
this clearly provides no protection for "the biological integrity of 
every mammalian species". Mr Rifkins claims that the incorporation of 
genetic traits from one species into the germ line of another to be an 
assault on "the principle of species integrity and violates the right of 
every species to exist as a separate identifiable creature". He, as 
most non-biologists, does not understand that there is no such thing as 
a right to exist "as a separate identifiable creature"; as described 
above if such a right were to exist, then it is being violated and has 
been so on a frequent basis throughout evolution. In spite of any efforts 
Mr Rif kin might be undertaking, it will continue so long as there are 
viable organisms. 
Furthermore, Mr Rifkin states rather glibly that "certainly most human 
beings would condemn any attempt to introduce animal genes permanently 
into the germ line of homo sapiens." Although I have no more evidence 
than does Mr Rifkin that this statement may be true or false, I certainly 
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