THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER 
Department of Biology 
Wooster, Ohio 44691 
October 15, 1984 
Director 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Building 31, Room 3 B 10 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Director: 
I write to oppose the recommendation of Mr. Jeremy Rif kin of the Foundation on 
Economic Trends, Washington, D.C. in his letter submitted to the Recombinant 
DNA Advisory Committee dated August 21, 1984 regarding prohibiting the 
transfer of genetic material from one species of mammal to another. 
The proposal is detrimental in that it will greatly impede learning about 
mechanisms of inheritance and control of genetic expression by the most 
promising of techniques. Secondly, the proposal comes from a philosophy based 
on a misconception of what constitutes species and speciation. Experience 
thus far seems to indicate there is a very small likelihood of Mr. Rif kin's 
fear of "genes runnin a muck" occurring when transferred to different species. 
The moral issue raised by Mr. Rifkin regarding violoation of the integrity of 
a species being perpetuated by having 'foreign' DNA introduced into it is 
indicative of Mr. Rifkin' s naive understanding of a species. He seems to 
ignore the shared inheritance of species and the concept of a genetic pool in 
defining biological morality. 
Therefore on both scientific and moral grounds, I urge the Committee to vote 
no on Mr. Rifkin' s proposal. 
Sincerely, 
M A 
'' t-^c ' . ic 
y 
r ~ L 
Donald L. Wise 
Danforth Professor and Chair 
Department of Biology 
S'l L/ 
DLWrblm 
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