San Francisco State University 
1600 HOLLOWAY AVENUE • SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94132, (415) 469-1548 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY 
August 25, 1986 
Director 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Building 31, Room 3-B-10 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20892 
Dear Sir/Madam: 
I want to comment on the proposal to modify Section III-A-4 
of the NIH Guidelines made by the Committee for Responsible 
Genetics, Boston, Massachusetts, which would ensure that germ 
line gene therapy proposals in humans would not be reviewed by 
RAC or approved by NIH. 
I am strongly in favor of the proposed alterations in the 
guidelines and I am in agreement with the rationale presented 
in the Federal Register (Vol. 51, No. 122, June 25, 1986, 
p. 23210-23211) by the Boston Committee. It is particularly 
appropriate as the committee noted^ that such therapy not be 
undertaken prior to full and open discussion of the issues by 
the public. 
Ri nrprel u lrnnrc 
Professor of Biology 
RGD : wt 
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