INTRODUCTION 
This volume contains significant documents representing events 
that culminated in the decision of Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson, 
Director of the National Institutes of Health, to release "Guidelines 
for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules." The guidelines 
and the Director's accompanying decision, as published in the Federal 
Register , are the first documents in this report. 
Following those, in chronological order, are documents that explain 
events leading up to the development and release of the NIH guidelines 
following extensive public scrutiny and comment. 
The Asilomar recommendations and related papers were developed 
at an international meeting held in February 1975 at the Asilomar 
Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California. The meeting was 
sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and supported by the 
National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In 
attendance were 150 people, including 52 foreign scientists from 15 
countries, 16 representatives of the press, and 4 attorneys. The 
conference reviewed research on recombinant DNA molecules and 
discussed ways to deal with potential biohazards of the work. 
The Asilomar group recommended that experiments on construction 
of recombinant DNA molecules should proceed, provided that appropriate 
biological and physical containment is utilized. There were rec- 
ommendations for matching levels of containment with levels of possible 
hazard for various types of experiment. Certain experiments judged 
to pose serious potential dangers were to be prohibited. 
The report of the conference's organizing committee, which is 
included in the present volume, was submitted to the Assembly of 
Life Sciences of the National Research Council - National Academy of 
Sciences and approved by its Executive Committee on May 20, 1975. 
Provisional and summary statements and a list of the Asilomar conference 
participants appear in the present volume. The summary statement 
was published in Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences . 
The NAS committee that had organized the Asilomar conference 
at the behest of scientists engaged in recombinant DNA research 
had also recommended that the Director of NIH establish an advisory 
committee to evaluate potential hazards of the research and devise 
guidelines to be followed by investigators. In response, the NIH 
Recombinant Advisory Committee (formally "NIH Recombinant DNA 
Molecule Program Advisory Committee") was established in October 
1974 to advise the Secretary of HEW, the Assistant Secretary for Health, 
and the Director of NIH in accomplishing these tasks. The committee 
proposed guidelines to the Director which are included in this volume. 
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