Letter to Recombinant Advisory Committee members 
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE 
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH 
BETHESDA. MARYLAND 20014 
March 19, 1976 
Dear Dr . : 
As you know, a special meeting of the Director's Advisory Committee was 
held at NIH on February 9-10 in order to review the guidelines proposed 
by your committee for DNA recombinant molecule research supported by the 
NIH. The meeting provided a forum for the scientific community and the 
public to comment on the draft guidelines. At that meeting, and subse- 
quent to it, I have received a great deal of comment from a wide variety 
of sources. The comments generally have been most thoughtful and respon- 
sive. The participants at the meeting and those who wrote to me after 
it were unanimous in acknowledging the important contributions of your 
committee . 
Your efforts in developing these guidelines are to be highly commended 
as exemplary of the constructive way in which the scientific community 
has risen to meet a singular challenge presented by its own achievements. 
The openness and candor that have characterized Asilomar proceedings, the 
self-imposed moratorium, and subsequent events have served both science 
and the public well. 
It is apparent to me that the promise of recombinant DNA research is 
very great not only for scientific knowledge but also for its potential 
extensions to medical and other problems facing mankind. The guide- 
lines the committee has proposed present a careful and thoughtful 
approach for the conduct of research involving DNA recombinant molecules. 
For the past month, I have been reviewing these guidelines with your 
chairman and other members of our staff in light of the comments and 
suggestions made by the participants at the meeting as well as the 
written correspondence thereafter. 
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