UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 
BERKELEY • DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO 
SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, B-022 
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA 92093 
October 24, 1984 
Dr. Will i am J. Gartland 
Executive Secretary, RAC 
National Institute of Allergy 
and Infectious Diseases 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Dr. Gartland: 
It has come to my attention that Mr. Jeremy Rifkin has proposed amend- 
ments to the NIH guidelines for recombinant DNA experimentation. I have 
read copies of his letters of August 21 and 23, 1984 to Dr. Bernard Talbot 
in which he sets forth the proposed amendments. The purpose of the pro- 
posal is to prohibit any transfer of genetic material from one mammalian 
species into the germ line of another. Mr. Rifkin 's objections to such 
procedures are based on moral and ethical grounds. It is clear to me that 
there are no scientific grounds for such objections, and it is doubtful 
that Mr. Rifkin 's perception of ethics and morality are sufficiently repre- 
sentative of those of an informed citizenry that they deserve undue weight 
in the councils of government. 
The proscription that Mr. Rifkin is seeking would foreclose many pro- 
mising avenues of investigation in mammalian genetics. An example that 
comes immediately to mind is the transfer of the dominant gene that causes 
the debilitating human disease, Huntington's Chorea, into the mouse germ 
line. Such a transfer might provide an animal model for this most intrac- 
table illness. Germ line transfers in effect allow the study of the effects 
of particular heterologous genes on the entire developmental program of an 
experimental species. 
In short such an amendment to the guide lines would severely restrict 
progress in an area that in my opinion holds great promise not only for 
understanding mammalian biology, but also as an eventual benefit to our own 
species, not as a germinal recipient of transforming DNA from other species, 
but as the beneficiary of the understanding derived from such experiments 
using experimental species as recipients. 
Vice President elect. 
Genetics Society of America 
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