3 
conference sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences which was 
held at the Asilomar Conference Center in California in February 1975. 
The consensus of the meeting at Asilomar was that certain experiments 
should not be done at the present time, but that most of the work on 
construction of recombinant DNA molecules should proceed with appropriate 
precautions. The Asilomar Conference report also made interim assessments 
of the potential risks associated with different types of experiments. 
The Asilomar Conference actions led the NIH to establish an advisory 
committee to develop guidelines for recombinant research funded or 
conducted by the NIH and to devise programs for assessing and controlling 
hazards in such research. After a year's work, the committee in December 
1975 proposed guidelines for the NIH to govern such DNA recombinant research. 
The proposed guidelines were reviewed at a special meeting of the 
Director's Advisory Committee held at the NIH on February 9-10, 1976. 
Members of the committee represented areas including not only science, 
but also law, ethics and consumer affairs. The meeting afforded an 
opportunity for the scientific community and the public to comment on the 
proposed guidelines. Over the past several months I reviewed the proposed 
guidelines in the light of the comments and suggestions made by the 
participants at the meeting as well as the written comments received 
after the meeting. A number of issues of special concern to the 
commentators were reviewed at my request by the advisory committee 
that developed the guidelines. 
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