Harvard Doctors Visit England For Nuclear War Conference

An international alliance of physicians, he asked by several Harvard-affiliated doctors, convened in Cambridge. England earlier this week to continue their discussions on the medical consequences of nuclear war and to pressure world leaders to halt the arms race.

The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an umbrella organization of numerous regional groups, gathered for four days to examine issues ranging from the ineffectiveness of civil defense to the genetic disorders which a nuclear war would cause.

The 150 physicians from 31 countries--including more than 12 from Harvard's hospitals--issued a joint statement sent to President Reagan and Soviet Party Chairman Leonid I. Brezhnev calling for "the nuclear powers [to] cease all production, testing, and deployment of nuclear weapons."

More than one million Americans have signed a similar freeze initiative, part of a widespread movement among citizens in Europe and America to convince world leaders to stop nuclear proliferation.

Harvard doctors have participated prominently in the two-year-old alliance, which claims to represent 30,000 physicians world-wide. The group started with an exchange of letters between Dr. Bernard Lown, professor of Cardiology at the School of Public Health (SPH), and Soviet physician Dr. Eugene Chazov.

"There's a growing effort by physicians from all over the world to try to increase the public's awareness that nuclear war isn't really war, but rather suicide," said Dr. John Mack, a professor of psychiatry at the Medical School who attended the conference