10 
participation in developing national and international science policy. We 
are all aware that it was scientists engaged in recombinant research who 
initiated the events leading to precedent-shattering restrictions on scien- 
tific activities. I believe the overwhelming majority of scientists have 
faithfully adhered to those rules, despite the hobbling effect they have 
had on inquiry. Our experience here and elsewhere also demonstrates that 
society, with every right to know, and a very real need to understand, is 
also intent on achieving the essential communication on this subject. 
The interest of the public and its scientific components can, and they 
must, be served jointly in a process such as this public hearing. 
I remind you all that the subject of these joint interests today is 
the revision of already existing NIH Guidelines. Those whose comments stray 
from this demanding focus to a wider angle can place this meeting in some 
peril of failing to achieve its objective, and that objective is to create 
a clear record of facts, relevant opinions, and useful information that will 
permit us to determine which of the proposed revisions or adaptations of 
them shall finally be accepted as the next version of the Guidelines. That 
determination will require evaluation and consultations for some time after 
this meeting. 
The agenda is a full one. Today's objectives will be to review the 
scope of the Guidelines, the standards for physical and biological con- 
tainment, and the application of those containment standards to permissible 
experiments. For the review of each relevant section, we are going to 
begin with a brief presentation by a member of the Recombinant Advisory 
Committee, and following each of those presentations we will hear from 
invited witnesses and then from public witnesses. It is important that 
the members of our two Committees and the witnesses have opportunity to 
exchange questions and answers. 
Because of the time constraints, which are real (and to which I am 
adding), each witness has been asked to speak for no longer than five 
minutes, with an opportunity for five minutes' more exchange between the 
witness and the Committee seated about this table. 
As you will note we have scheduled an evening session today for fur- 
ther discussion and debate. Members of the audience who are not scheduled 
to speak but who wish to do so should contact Dr. McCarthy, the Executive 
Secretary of the Director's Advisory Committee, or Ms. Garfinkle, his 
assistant . 
This morning Dr. Littlefield will review the development of the pro- 
posed revisions, and Dr. Helinski will explain the new definition for ex- 
periments under the Guidelines. Dr. Barkley will take up the proposed 
revisions for physical containment, and Dr. Sue Gottesman will lead off 
the section on biological containment. This afternoon Drs. Helinski, Rowe, 
and Day will initiate discussion on the experimental guidelines, which will 
continue into this evening. 
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