STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305

DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY PAUL BER G
Willson Professor of Biochemistry

September 13, 1977

Dr. Dan Nathans

Dept. of Microbiology

Johns Hopkins Medical School
Baltimore, MD

Dear Dan,

Enclosed are four drafts of the letter regarding the recombinant DNA
matter. Three have identical beginnings (pages 1-4) but end in three
different ways; the first paragraph on page 4 is ending #1, the second
paragraph on page 4 is the second ending, and the last paragraph supplies
ending #3. After completing these and getting some helpful reactions
from Arthur Kornberg I wrote the fourth version. It was an attempt to
make is shorter, less ponderous and, perhaps, more positive. As you
might have guessed I’ prefer version #4 followed by #1 > #3 > #2.

In redoing this draft I tried to take into account the ideas (and
some phrases) Dave Hogness and Stan Cohen conveyed in their drafts and
what I could deduce from your comments to my first attempt. I'm not at
all certain that this is the best but perhaps it's closer to what we can
all agree upon. If not someone else should make a fresh attempt for us
to consider.

By now you have received Norton Zinder's letter with his suggestion
to defer our communication until some of the smoke has cleared. I don't
agree but I'm not sure. The situation is changing very fast. Today, I
heard that Kennedy is withdrawing his bill in favor of a proposal for a
one year extension of the NIH Guidelines to industry pending a study of
whether legislation is needed. Perhaps our letter will not be needed.

If we could influence the NAS ad hoc committee report to come out against

the need for legislation (in spite of the earlier conclusion to "reluctan-
tly" support legislation they may be tilting towards opposing the need for
any legislation) even Rogers might back off. If that happened the matter

might die and our public statement would be unnecessary. The next week or
so could be crucial.
p. 2
9/13/77

There may no longer be any urgency to get this done quickly. But if
you let me know your reactions to versions 1-4 it would be helpful if we
should need to have a unified statement in the near future.

Sincerely yours,

PB:ab