University of Illinois Department of Physiology and Biophysics 
at Urbana-Champaign College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Te 
r o RnnHll Hall ni 
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 
524 Burrill Hall 
407 South Goodwin Avenue 
Urbana 
Illinois 61801 
USA 
Telephone 
Physiology 217 333-1735 
Biophysics 217 333-1630 
October 12, 1984 
Dr. William J. Gartland, Jr. 
Executive Secretary 
Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee 
Building 31 , Room 3B10 
National Institute of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Dr. Gartland: 
I would like to register strong objection to the amendments to the 
Guidelines proposed by Mr. Jeremy Rifkin (Federal Register, Vol . 49, pages 
37016-37017, September 20, 1984). A blanket ban on insertion of genes of one 
mammal i am species into the germ line genome of a second mammalian species could 
greatly limit proper and important research on the mechanisms involved in gene 
expression. The obvious potential applications of this kind of research to 
understanding cancer and genetic disesases need not be enumerated here. That 
this kind of research can be construed as cruelty to animals by depriving them 
of the purity of their species is simply absurd. Years of selective breeding 
and crossbreeding of domestic animals has long since established the principle 
of species plasticity. I also suspect that if a specific animal gene could be 
successfully used to cure a serious human genetic disease, the patients and 
their families would manage to refrain from condemning the treatment. The 
proposal by Mr. Rifkin, I believe, has no rational basis and intends to correct 
an injustice that in fact does not exist. I urge the committee to reject the 
proposed amendments. 
Si ncerely , 
Byron Kemper 
Associate Professor of Physiology 
BK/pd 
cc: W. L. Hurley 
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