59.4 A nuclear Hippocratic oath

As physicians (and surgeons), our calling is to prevent sickness where we can, to cure it when we cannot prevent it, and to comfort the sick whom we cannot cure. Our challenge now is to make the ultimate supreme effort in the history of our profession—to do our bit to prevent mankind, all 4.3 billion of us, from destroying ourselves in the ultimate catastrophic act of global suicide—with the obscene possibility that it might all happen by mistake. ’International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War’ (225 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA) have suggested that we should adapt our Hippocratic Oath to the atomic age like this:

As a physician of the 20th century, I recognize that nuclear weapons have presented my profession with a challenge of unprecedented proportions, and that a nuclear war would be the final epidemic for mankind. I will do all in my power to work for the prevention of nuclear war.