The Development of the Physicians' Peace Movements

A brief historical account is given of the development of medical ethics, and of the gradual assumption of medical responsibilities in relation to victims of war. The idea that the medical profession as a whole should be concerned with health problems throughout the world, other than those of their own nationals, is quite recent. Collaboration in this area began with the International Health Organization of the League of Nations, and was greatly strengthened by the setting up of the World Health Organization by the United Nations in 1948. However, the idea that the medical profession has a duty to try to prevent war, rather than to mitigate its sufferings, is almost new and arose largely from the realization that war involving nuclear weapons poses the greatest immediate health hazard to humankind. The growth of physicians’ organizations during the past 30, but especially the past 5 or 6 years, is described, and the significance of their federation to form International Physicians for the Prevention of Nu

Duty · Economic growth · Family medicine · League · Medical profession · Political science · Public relations · World War II · Ethics in medical practice · Health and Conflict Studies · Law · Medicine · Torture, Ethics, and Law

• Transnational Professional Activism and the Prevention of Nuclear War in Britain

  Open Access•Christoph Laucht•Journal of Social History•2018

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• What are the roles for health professionals in addressing the rising threat of the use of nuclear weapons? With particular reference to the activities of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War 1951–1963

  Jack Burnett•Medicine Conflict & Survival•2023

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• The Cold and the Dark

  Andrew J Pierre, P R Ehrlich et al.•Foreign Affairs•1984

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• Indefensible Weapons

  Ian Clark, Robert Jay Lifton et al.•International Journal Canada s…•1983

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