International Conferences

We would also include political or military organizations supported by several governments. The discussion might reasonably be extended to organizations within a country, such as military establishments, commercial firms, and so on, but to avoid complicating the issue we suggest that these cases be left aside for the moment.
We realize that there are some countries where all such private initiative is controlled and any invitation would have to be considered an official one.
It may be difficult in some cases to decide whether the support is “direct”. In assessing this it would seem sensible to consider whether there are any strings attached to the granting of the money, or whether the money is allocated on a strictly scientific basis, without any political or military considerations.
Scientists at the present time appear to be divided on the ethical issue of whether one should accept money from a government of which one disapproves. Some feel strongly that money should not be accepted. Others argue that such financial contributions, though small, will, if anything, weaken the organization which makes them. Because we believe that even after debate there will always be a substantial fraction of scientists who are against accepting such money, we suggest that no useful purpose will be served by publicly debating this particular ethical point in this context.

Author information

Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
F. H. C. CRICK, J. C. KENDREW, M. F. PERUTZ & F. SANGER
Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
JACQUES MONOD & FRANCOIS JACOB
Institut de Recherches Scientifiques sur le Cancer, B.P. No. 8, 94, Villejuif, France
ANDRÉ LWOFF

Authors

CRICK, F., KENDREW, J., PERUTZ, M. et al. International Conferences. Nature 224, 93–94 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/224093a0