On behalf of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, I am pleased to transmit Splicing Life, our Report on the social and ethical issues of genetic engineering with human beings. This study, which was not within the Commission's legislative mandate, was prompted by a letter to your predecessor in July 1980 from Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant church associations. We embarked upon it, pursuant to § 1802 (a)(2) of our statute, at the urging of the President's Science Advisor.

Some people have suggested that developing the capability to splice human genes opens a Pandora's box, releasing mischief and harm far greater than the benefits for biomedical science. The Commission has not found this to be the case. The laboratory risks in this field have received careful attention from the scientific community and governmental bodies. The therapeutic applications now being planned are analogous to other forms of novel therapy and can be judged by general ethical standards and procedures, informed by an awareness of the particular risks and benefits that accompany each attempt at gene splicing.