University of Illinois 
at Urbana-Champaign 
Department of Dairy Science College of Agriculture 
315 Animal Sciences Laboratory 217 333-3462 
1207 West Gregory Drive 
Urbana 
Illinois 61801 
October 22, 1984 
Director, Office of Recombinant DNA 
Activities 
Building 31, Room 3B10 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Sir: 
We are deeply concerned about the recent proposals made 
to your committee by Mr. Jeremy Rifkin (Federal Register 49: 
37016-37017, 1984) on the transfer of mammalian genes. The 
proposal is not founded on scientific facts or reasoning and 
would have far reaching implications in the areas of future 
world food production and in human health. 
Mr. Rifkin' s proposal is based solely on ethical issues, 
reflecting primarily his personal beliefs. No concern is 
expressed for environmental or safety issues. The "dramatic 
new technological threshold" expressed by Mr. Rifkin is anything 
but new. Transfer of DNA to mammalian cells or embryos is a 
well established technique and research to date has done much 
to clarify the biological limitations of the approach. An 
important biological lesson underlined by the use of recombinant 
DNA techniques is that the genome of organisms is not static, 
with a number of types of movable elements existing and this 
dynamic nature of the genome is a mechanism of adaptation to 
changing environment. Evidence from research in developmental 
biology strongly indicates that incompatibility within a genome 
most likely will lead to embryonic death. 
Man's efforts to genetically manipulate other species 
began well before recorded history. Attempts at DNA transfer 
to confer a special characteristic on population within a 
species is but a more refined extension of selective breeding 
used by man for centuries in many species. The successful 
transfer of DNA in humans to cure genetic disease could 
scarcely be condemned on ethical grounds. Numerous gene 
products from other species are routinely used in treating 
human diseases. The transfer of a gene rather than administra- 
tion of its product is not a violation of species identity, 
but simply a more efficient and probably more effective 
treatment . 
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