UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98195 
Engineering Interdepartmental 
Curricular Program FS-15 
21 February 1984 
Dr. James Wyngaarden 
National Institute of Health 
9000 Rockville Pike 
124 NIH 1 
Bethesda , MD 20814 
Dear Dr. Wyngaarden, 
This letter is in response to a notification in the Federal 
Register dated January 5th concerning a meeting of the Recombinant 
DNA Advisory Committee which was to be held on February 6 and 7. 
I did not receive a Federal Register mailing until late in the 
month of January. Because there was not time for me to actually 
consider the issues raised, formulate my opinions and views and 
communicate them to the RAC, and allow members of the RAC to 
review them (along with any others which may have been able to 
come in in such a shortened time span), I wish to urge you to 
delay making any decisions on these issues until there has* been 
more adequate time provided for public comment and discussion. 
The issues which particularly concern me are those regarding 
the appropriate scope of NIH jurisdiction for oversight of Recombinant 
DNA activities (including the possibilities of expanding the member- 
ship of the RAC), the need for an environmental impact assessment 
and statements regarding the intentional release of organisms contain- 
ing recombinant DNA into the environment, and the proposal from a 
military agency to do cloning. 
For three years I was a member of the IBC here at the University 
of Washington, I have in the past participated in the procedures initiated 
by then-secretary Califano which led to the big revision of the Recom- 
binant DNA Guidelines several years ago, have appeared before the RAC 
on occasion, and have published professionally on the public policy 
aspects of Recombinant DNA regulation. Thus, I have some competence 
to address these issues, but as you must realize that they are 
weighty and a proper response on my part could only come after some 
adequate time for study and reflection. 
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