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cases, the fact of the matter is that the public is entitled to know this. 
And this problem that we have here today, which Dr. Stetten just pointed 
out, is that we don't know. We have got a lot of them. We have got a 
barrel full of them. They are all over the place, and the healthiest thing 
that can happen is to let it all hang out, works and all, because if the 
public doesn't accept it, it just isn't worth a good damn. That is what 
you have to reach. 
Now, I don't think that compromises expertise at all. The expert must 
understand that there are other values in the community. These are the 
values that have to be balanced, and there is not going to be a satisfactory 
answer to the problems that are presented here. There can't be. So it is 
going to take some guts, but you had better back it up with a very good 
record. God bless you. 
(Laughter. ) 
DR. FREDRICKSON: Thank you very much. Judge Bazelon. I realize the 
restriction under which you do work as a member of this committee, but your 
presence has been an extraordinary help. 
Dr. Sinsheimer? 
DR. SINSHEIMER: Okay. Socrates is a hard act to follow. 
I just want to make three points rather quickly. The first is that I 
would like to point out that I think the research we are talking about here 
at this meeting really marks the advent of a whole new era, the real turning 
of the corner in biological research. It marks the transition of biological 
research from a primarily analytic phase to a much more synthetic phase. 
And I don't think the full implications of that have sunk into any of us, 
and it may well be that this will require changes in the modes in which we 
do research, in the agents that we use, and so forth. 
Secondly, I would like to say that I think some of these issues, such 
as. Is E. coli the best host or not the best host? have been approached 
in too global a manner. Some of the postulated benefits probably can only 
be obtained in microorganisms, and for some of those the risk is not great, 
and for those maybe E^. coli is the best host. Some of the other benefits 
I think very likely could be obtained in other ways with other vectors, 
and in some of those, in view of the risks, other possibilities might well 
be much more desirable. I think the problem has to be fragmented and 
looked into in more detail. 
The third point I would make is one that has been implicit, I think, in 
what everyone has said, but I haven't heard it said expressly, and that is 
that what we are doing, I believe, is almost certainly irreversible, that 
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