Anti-Nuclear Doctors’ Group Gets Peace Prize

The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, founded by an American and a Soviet, won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for warning that the only “medical prescription” to an atomic holocaust is a nuclear test freeze.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee selected the anti-nuclear organization of 145,000 doctors in 41 nations for the prestigious Peace Prize from among a record 99 nominees, including President Reagan. It was the 13th time an organization, rather than an individual, has won the prize.

$225,000 Award

The Nobel committee invited co-founders Dr. Bernard Lown of Boston and Dr. Yevgeny Chazov of the Soviet Union to receive the record $225,000 award at ceremonies in Oslo on Dec. 10.

The two cardiologists, in Geneva, Switzerland, for the fifth anniversary of the founding their group, hugged and kissed each other when told of the award.

“We are obviously delighted and overjoyed,” said Lown, 64, “but we would treasure a ban on all nuclear testing much more than the money.

“We are racing to the brink and we have to stop,” he added. “At this rate, you will not see the year 2000 and, indeed, it is a miracle that we are alive today.”

Lown and Chazov said the prize money will be used to further the campaign against nuclear testing waged by their organization, headquartered in Brookline, Mass.

After an exchange of letters, Lown and Chazov founded their anti-nuclear movement in Geneva in December, 1980, to promote the view that doctors worldwide would have to stand by helpless in the event of an atomic holocaust and their only option was to help prevent one.

“Modern medicine has absolutely nothing to offer survivors of a nuclear war, and the arms race is the No. 1 preventable threat to public health,” said Peter Zheutlin, the group’s public affairs director.

Group Praised

In announcing the award, Nobel Committee Chairman Egil Aarvik praised the group for “the scientific basis on which they have spread information on the catastrophic consequences of nuclear warfare.”

“This contributes to increasing public pressure on the nuclear arms race . . . ,” Aarvik said, adding that the work of the physicians’ group could help “give new perspectives to and increase the seriousness in the ongoing disarmament talks.”

The Peace Prize, established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, has often stirred controversy--and could again this year because of the group’s praise of Moscow’s peace initiatives.

Lown condemned past U.S.-Soviet arms negotiations as “a masquerade” and said he does not believe the U.S. arguments that a ban on underground nuclear test explosions could not be verified. “Nuclear explosions can be verified,” he said.

Freeze Welcomed

A professor of cardiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, Lown also said he “welcomes and fully endorses” Moscow’s unilateral freeze on nuclear testing announced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in August.

Chazov, 56, who was personal physician to the last three late Soviet leaders--Leonid I. Brezhnev, Yuri V. Andropov and Konstantin U. Chernenko--said the physicians’ organization worked to show the world “what our planet would be like after a nuclear war.”

“Our work . . . is a medical prescription for a freeze on nuclear testing,” said Chazov, who has been a member of the Communist Party since 1962.

Aarvik said the prize was intended “to say to the Americans and Soviets at the (nuclear arms) talks in Geneva that it is very important that they come up with results.”

Top of Agenda

Nuclear arms control also is at the top of the agenda for the summit meeting between President Reagan and Gorbachev in Geneva next month.

The Soviet ambassador in Oslo has boycotted the Peace Prize presentation ceremonies since dissident nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov won the award in 1975.

The Peace Prize is the first Nobel award to be given this year. The five prizes in the sciences and literature will be announced in Stockholm this week, beginning with the medicine prize on Monday.

In the last two years, the committee has awarded the Peace Prize to Lech Walesa, founder of the Polish trade union Solidarity, and South African anti-apartheid crusader Bishop Desmond Tutu.