February 17, 1976 
Dr. Donald Fredrickson, Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Md . 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
The following comprises my comments and suggestions concerning 
the proposed Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant 
DNA Molecules. 
The decisions you must make in regulating recombinant DNA mole- 
cule research are of critical importance, not only because they 
will provide a model for other countries in regulating research 
within their borders, but because they are the fulfillment of 
a process which will be viewed as a case study in the genesis 
of science policy for many years to come. 
In the guise of the recombinant DNA molecule controversy, sci- 
entists have been provided with a critical opportunity to re- 
tain control over their own fate, as the outcome may well deter- 
mine the degree of outside intervention scientists will have 
to deal with in the future. The extent to which they show them- 
selves disinterested and responsible will provide the rationale 
for whatever degree of control they maintain. The question has 
become, not whe ther research will be regulated, but who will 
control it. 
For these reasons, it should be emphasized that the construction 
of these regulations is a public act. 
Whatever the outcome, interms of specific guidelines, it is 
almost certain that they will turn out to have been inadequate 
or excessive in some respects, as data accumulates. Thus it is 
vital that the guidelines be readily modifiable for the first 
few years, at least. 
In light of the above. It must be pointed out that there is an 
interaction between conservatism and flexibility - if modification 
is a realistic expectation, then strict guidelines may be rec- 
ommended with confidence that they may be altered if it subse- 
quently appears that they are overzealous. I therefore strongly 
support the principle, expressed in the guidelines and in the 
Asilomar statement, that "Containment should be high at the 
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