Controversies about Disaster Medicine and Nuclear War

Extract

The German Association for Disaster Medicine published the following declaration for physicians, citizens and governments (J. German Physicians, June 24, 1983, pg. 39): “Disaster medicine defines as the limit of its applicability situations in which violence and the dimension of destruction will make every systematic and organized aid impossible; this would be the case in a nuclear war.” This explanation would show the right way to act for those who reject disaster medicine, as they consider it an alleged preparation for nuclear war — i.e., some members of the peace movement. This declaration also addresses authorities, so that they will not cherish false expectations. Some of these allegations culminate in the statement that the physicians supporting disaster medicine would suggest to the political and military leaders that nuclear warfare could be risked. This is obvious nonsense.