3 
Mr. Mitchell suggested that few Congressmen had in-depth experience in the 
biomedical sciences; he asked if Congressmen educate themselves in the issues. 
Ms. So bell replied that the Congressmen depend on their staff people; sane 
Congressmen have only a superficial understanding of the issues, while others 
have good staff work and are well informed. Dr. Nightingale said the RAC 
should fill an educational function. 
Dr. Saginor expressed concern about the influence of lobbying groups. 
Dr. Harris said she shared Dr. Saginor 's concerns; she felt political consti- 
tuencies shape legislation. She felt the Working Group must express support 
for oversight functions, but not for regulation. 
Dr. Walters noted that the Splicing Life report proposes three possible 
approaches: (1) RAC's mandate could be modified to include considerations of 
ethical and social issues in biomedicine; (2) a genetic engineering commission 
could be established, or (3) the President's Commission could be reactivated 
with multiple oversight functions including oversight of human genetic 
engineering . 
Mr. Mitchell asked Dr. Gartland whether RAC's charter would have to be amended, 
if RAC were to assume additional oversight responsibilities. Dr. Gartland 
replied that RAC is chartered to oversee laboratory research and to evaluate 
risk. RAC has rarely exceeded these responsibilities. On one occasion, RAC 
considered issues associated with biological warfare, but it had an entree to 
do so through a proposal to amend the NIH Guidelines to prohibit explicitly 
biological warfare. Dr. McCarthy said that at the moment HHS has not taken a 
position on the issues before the Working Group. 
Dr. Nightingale suggested that RAC has implicitly considered ethical issues. 
She said participants at the Asilcmar Conference had discussed the ethics of 
recombinant DNA research. Recognizing that their expertise was in technical 
areas, however, they decided to focus on biosafety issues. Nevertheless, she 
said the original "prohibitions" were based on ethical considerations. She 
added that RAC had received reports on the Martin Cline case involving the 
administration of recombinant CNA to humans. In light of these considerations, 
she questioned whether the charter would have to be amended. Dr. Gottesman 
noted that RAC has a certain flexibility within its charter. 
Dr. Martin expressed his opinion that proposals dealing with human genetic 
engineering will come to RAC, and that RAC will not be able to avoid these 
issues. Dr. Martin argued that human genetic engineering would be covered by 
Section III-A-2 of the Guidelines which specifies that proposals involving 
"deliberate release into the environment of any organism containing recombinant 
CNA" require RAC review and NIH and IBC approval before initiation. 
Dr. Gottesman suggested that experiments involving human subjects are covered 
by Section III-B-4-b which states: 
"For all experiments involving whole animals and plants and not 
covered by III-B-4-a, the appropriate containment will be 
determined by the IBC." 
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