Several years ago when this work first appeared, it had become apparent that scientists, who play such a key role in the nuclear enterprise, needed to be alerted to the many questions of conscience and legality that were inextricably interlinked with their work. These questions lay at the heart of the nuclear weapons problem, for whatever the political and military leaders might ordain, the manufacture of such weapons was a plain impossibility without the active assistance of the scientific profession. Yet no substantive work on this topic had until then been attempted. Such a work appeared at that time to be an urgent and important need. If the problem was then acute and serious, it is even more so now. The power of nuclear science has grown and with it has grown the power of the individual scientist to initiate new developments. The changes in the world order that have occurred in the intervening years enable individual scientists to hold themselves out as available for employment. Those who seek their expertise may include not only governments but other entities as well. The power of global destruction that these scientists command renders it imperative that they be alerted on a continuing basis to the problems of conscience that arise. Hence the need for a re-issue of this work, for which there had been many requests from concerned scientists, professional groups, socially concerned organisations and also from lawyers. The book is re-issued in its original form but updated by the inclusion of more recent work as contained in extracts from three judicial opinions upon the matter.

An unflinching examination of the moral and professional dilemmas faced by physicians who took part in the Manhattan Project. After his father died, James L. Nolan, Jr., took possession of a box of private family materials. To his surprise, the small secret archive contained a treasure trove of information about his grandfather’s role as a doctor in the Manhattan Project. Dr. Nolan, it turned out, had been a significant figure. A talented ob-gyn radiologist, he cared for the scientists on the project, organized safety and evacuation plans for the Trinity test at Alamogordo, escorted the “Little Boy” bomb from Los Alamos to the Pacific Islands, and was one of the first Americans to enter the irradiated ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Participation on the project challenged Dr. Nolan’s instincts as a healer. He and his medical colleagues were often conflicted, torn between their duty and desire to win the war and their oaths to protect life. Atomic Doctors follows these physicians as they sought to maximize the health and safety of those exposed to nuclear radiation, all the while serving leaders determined to minimize delays and maintain secrecy. Called upon both to guard against the harmful effects of radiation and to downplay its hazards, doctors struggled with the ethics of ending the deadliest of all wars using the most lethal of all weapons. Their work became a very human drama of ideals, co-optation, and complicity. A vital and vivid account of a largely unknown chapter in atomic history, Atomic Doctors is a profound meditation on the moral dilemmas that ordinary people face in extraordinary times.

"A National Pastoral Life Center publication." Includes bibliographical references.