Paul Berg and the Asilomar Conference - Essay Example

"Many scientists worried that hybrid molecules from recombinant DNA experiments could result in dangerous new organisms that could pose a threat to public health. Others were deeply concerned about ethical issues related to genetic engineering, especially as it might be applied to humans." (Photographs from Asilomar). This chaotic situation led the National Academy of Sciences to ask Paul Berg to head a committee that "in July 1974 took the unusual move of calling for a voluntary moratorium on certain types of recombinant DNA experiments until the hazards could be evaluated.

" (Barinaga). Seven months later, Berg organized the International Congress on Recombinant DNA Molecules, which was held in February 1975 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California. In an essay posted by Paul Berg at the Nobel Prize Organization website in 2004, he revisits the recombinant DNA controversies of the 1970's, the 1975 Asilomar Conference and 30 years later. Looking back, Berg explains and justifies the voluntary moratorium which scientists universally imposed on themselves regarding certain recombinant DNA experiments. . rg became the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules and one of its aims "was to consider whether to lift the voluntary moratorium and, if so, under what conditions the research could proceed safely", according to Berg.

At the conclusion of the conference, consensus was for recombinant DNA research to proceed but under strict guidelines. Berg supports this conclusion. He mentions that hundreds of millions of experiments have been conducted since 1975 with "no documented hazard to public health attributable to the applications of recombinant DNA technology. Moreover, the concern of some that moving DNA among species would breach customary breeding barriers and have profound effects on natural evolutionary processes has substantially disappeared as the science revealed that such exchanges occur in nature.

" He also mentions, that in support of the resolutions of the conference, immediately after, in 1976, the Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules were promulgated by the National Institutes of Health and by comparable bodies in other countries. Despite Paul Berg's support of both the moratorium and the successful conclusion of the Asilomar Conference, he has strong reservations regarding resurrecting the Asilomar model for the resolution of "hot button issues confronting scientists and the public today".

He compares the environment of 30 years ago, which worked for the success of the 1975 Asilomar Conference versus the present scenario. He believes, "an Asilomar type conference trying to contend with contentious views is doomed to acrimony and policy stagnation." Although I agree with the points Berg raised against convening an Asilomar type conference in the present day, I believe that communication, dialogue, exhaustive discussion