| The United States government stopped a group of about 70 American medical school professors, doctors and other scientists from attending an international symposium on coma and death in Cuba this week, several doctors said yesterday.
Scientists say the prohibition against the trip, with only a few days' notice, is the latest step by the Bush administration to limit their work with people in countries like Cuba that are seen as hostile to the United States. "They're trying to punish these countries they've identified as evil," said Stuart J. Youngner, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who helped organize the conference. "But the end result of this is an infringement on academic freedom, our freedom as citizens to travel and also damaging to science in the United States and around the world." Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said his group was alarmed by the government's opposition to the Cuba trip, as well as by its recent ban on the editing of papers submitted by people in countries facing sanctions and by restrictions on study by foreign students in the United States. "Their actions to restrict open communication in science work against our national interest," he said. ...The Cuba conference was the Fourth International Symposium on Coma and Death, which starts today. About 200 scientists from around the world were to participate. Dr. E. Roy John, a professor at New York University's School of Medicine and director of the Brain Research Laboratories there, who was scheduled to deliver two papers, said he had been particularly interested in sessions on bringing people out of comas through more active treatment. Dr. John and other researchers said that in areas like molecular biology and mathematics, Cuba was "world class." |
Click graphic
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!