Everett Koop — from pariah to paragon

Daube, Mike

doi:10.5694/mja13.10512

Topics

Leading tobacco-control advocate Mike Daube pays his respects to an elder statesman of American public health

If former United States Surgeon General Everett Koop, who died on 25 February at the age of 96, had died in 1981, obituaries would have described him as a distinguished and innovative paediatric surgeon and teacher, widely known for his evangelical Christianity and his leadership in the antiabortion movement that endeared him to many conservatives in the US.

Curtin University, Perth, WA.

Correspondence: m.daube@curtin.edu.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Dr Unqualified. New York Times 1981; 9 Apr. http://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/09/opinion/dr-unqualified. html (accessed Apr 2013).
2. Executive News Service; United Press International. Koop attacks tobacco industry. 1989. http://legacy. library.ucsf.edu/tid/gjf67c00 (accessed Apr 2013).
3. US National Library of Medicine. The C Everett Koop papers: reproduction and family health. http://profiles. nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/QQ/p-nid/88 (accessed Apr 2013).
4. Koop CE. Surgeon General’s report on acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Public Health Rep 1987; 102: 1-3.
5. Silverman BK, Waddell A, editors. Report of the Surgeon General’s workshop on children with HIV infection and their families. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, 1987.
6. US National Library of Medicine. The C Everett Koop papers: congenital birth defects and the medical rights of children: the “Baby Doe” controversy. http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/QQ/p-nid/86 (accessed Apr 2013).
7. Specter M. The Bush administration’s war on the laboratory. New Yorker 2006; 13 Mar. http://www. michaelspecter.com/2006/03/a-reporter-at-large-political-science (accessed Apr 2013).

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