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9 Health Matrix 289 (1999)
Is Self-Regulation Enough Today?: Evaluating the Recombinant DNA Controversy

handle is hein.journals/hmax9 and id is 295 raw text is: IS SELF-REGULATION ENOUGH TODAY?: EVALUATING THE RECOMBINANT DNA CONTROVERSY Charles Weiner* THE RECOMBINANT DNA CONTROVERSY is some- times cited today as relevant to current controversies about the control of new or proposed genetic technologies such as human cloning and human germ-line intervention.1 In the late 1970s, the concern was about the potential health and environmental hazards of novel research techniques that made it possible to manipulate genes, opening the path to genetic engineering. The researchers, their institutions, and their funding agencies developed a system of self-regulation to avoid hazards and to forestall legislative control. They focused on the means and not the ends; on the tools of ge- netic engineering rather than on the moral limits. I will outline the history of this process, with emphasis on aspects of it that are rele- vant to current concerns.2 * Professor Emeritus of History of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ph.D., Case Institute of Technology, 1965; B.S., Case Insti- tute of Technology, 1960. 1 Paul Berg & Maxine Singer, Regulating Human Cloning, 282 SCIENCE 413 (1998) (asserting that anti-cloning legislation could inadvertently inhibit or delay research on diseases and the development of new therapies). See also Claire Nader & Stuart A. Newman, Human Cloning, 282 SCIENCE 1824 (1998) (disagreeing with the proposition that recombinant DNA research should be unregulated because of the biological and ethical issues raised by human cloning); Doris Teichier Zallen, The Public as a Partner at the Laboratory Bench, 12 TRENDS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY 107 (1994) (explaining how the current vigorous state of health of research into recom- binant DNA is a result of the system of review developed in the mid-1970s, and how this is applicable to present-day issues arising due to advances in genetic technology). 2 This historical summary draws on my observations and documentation of the recombinant DNA controversy utilizing archival materials deposited in the Recombi- nant DNA History Collection available for study at the Institute Archives and Special Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See Charles Weiner, Anticipating the Consequences of Genetic Engineering: Past, Present, and Future, in ARE GENES Us? THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE NEw GENETICS 31 (Carl F. Cranor ed., 1994) (providing portions of this account). There are well-documented histories and analy- 289