Opinion
One of the major controversies surrounding exchanges between U.S. and Soviet scientists is whether action on human rights should be a prerequisite for communication. A number of scientists have argued that it should. A few years ago, for example, the National Academy of Sciences canceled formal exchanges with the Soviet Union because of the plight of a number of Soviet scientists, particularly physicist Andrey Sakharov. And in the fall of 1986, Yuri Orlov, the distinguished Soviet dissident, speaking before a committee of the National Academy of Sciences, said. “The right thing to do is to reject scientific contacts for moral reasons.” The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War has. taken a different approach. As a confederation of 160,000 physicians with groups in 55 countries, the IPPNW has chosen to recognize the reality that the countries in which its member doctors live have differing political systems—democracies and dictatorships ...
