Comment from Alison Weiss

Well intentioned legislation can have severe, negative consequences. No where is this more apparent than the restrictions imposed on biomedical researchers following the anthrax episode. I am a researcher studying E. coli O157:H7. Children die from this disease each year, and there is a great need to develop cures. However research in this area has been significantly hampered due to recently enacted limitations on recombinant DNA research. Current restrictions on pathogenic microbes and new proposed restrictions regarding antibiotic resistance genes should be re-evaluated because: 1. All organisms from scientific research are destroyed after each experiment. Legitimate research poses no danger to the public. 2. Restrictions on legitimate scientific research slow progress toward the development of cures, creating unnecessary suffering. 3. Pathogens are everywhere in the environment (for example E. coli O157:H7 is likely to be in the food you buy at your local grocery store). Locking-down research labs does not lock up the pathogenic organisms. 4. Foreign researchers are making rapid progress while US scientists get fingerprinted and FBI checked. It is easy to envision a scenario where the US becomes entirely dependent on the generosity of foreign nations for new vaccines because our scientists were unable access important strains in a timely manner. There is no need to enact more restrictive regulations on legitimate scientific research. I suggest that oversight of Recombinant DNA should be returned to the local oversight committees. In addition, current regulations need to be revisited to balance public safety with the public’s right to the cures from biomedical research.