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PROFESSOR ROSENBLITH: I would have felt a good deal more comfortable 
if we had had a minority opinion, if we had had a statement that this is 
what we really believe, and this is what it seems to do, but at the present 
time I must say that this leakage of testimony that is each time labeled 
political makes me uncomfortable. 
DR. ROWE: If I could comment to that, I wrote a letter to Science that 
was published about six weeks ago in which I defended the use of this word 
"political." It is unusual in Washington to defend the word "politics," 
but I think we have to differentiate between the scientific and the politi- 
cal. Our Committee was asked two questions, what is the scientific evidence 
that there might be a risk, and what is the appropriate administrative 
response to this risk. The latter I call a political decision. It is a 
policy in response to a factual data base. It is the difference of a legal 
question of fact and a question of law. 
I think in this case we had a certain body of facts and a very heavy 
reaction to it. I don't mind using the word "political" in that all of our 
responses, recommendations, are policy, political responses to varying 
levels of data. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: Mr. Helms. 
MR. HELMS: I would like to say, I feel a little bit the same way Profes- 
sor Rosenblith feels. I think that one of the things that would be a great 
shame here is to turn the scientific process into the political process. 
For one thing, lawyers would be out of jobs, but beyond that — 
PROFESSOR ROSENBLITH: That is not what I was worried about. 
(Laughter. ) 
MR. HELMS: But beyond that I think this standard of excellence that is 
represented by the National Institutes of Health means that the decisions 
which are made here are, at least at the level below the Director — perhaps 
perforce you must involve yourself in the political process, but I would 
think at the Recombinant Committee level, decisions ought to reflect as 
closely as possible the science of the matter, and not have dilutions at 
that level. I think there will be plenty of dilutions in the political pro- 
cess when it moves to another part of town. That bothers me a little bit. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: Dr. Gustafson, you are very familiar with NIH, sci- 
ence, and its confrontation or interface with politics. I note you have a 
comment . 
DR. GUSTAFSON: I worry a little bit about the use of the word "politi- 
cal," because it seems to me it can mean many different things to many dif- 
ferent ears. It can mean finding the lowest common denominator between 
various pressure groups to which a group like the NIH is responsible. In 
that sense it seems to me to have a pejorative connotation, and there are 
good reasons to worry about it. 
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