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Letter: An Amazing Surgeon General

Sunday, March 3, 2013

To the Editor:

Dr. C. Everett Koop was indeed an amazing surgeon general, deserving all the praise in your article (“C. Everett Koop, 1916-2013,” Feb. 26). You mention that he was a socially conservative, devout Christian who wrote a popular treatise against abortion.

However, when anti-abortion groups were saying that women who had abortions increased their risk of breast cancer, Koop said that was essentially baloney — that nothing in the medical literature supported that claim. He also spoke out when antiabortion groups peddled the notion that abortions led to feelings of regret and guilt and psychiatric problems. He soundly rebutted that claim, saying that women generally felt a great sense of relief. Despite his strong personal feelings against abortion, he refused to sacrifice his professional integrity.

Nita Norman

Lebanon

Related
U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speaks in Philadelphia in Sept. 1988. Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died yesterday in Hanover He was 96. (Associated Press - Robert J. Gurecki)

C. Everett Koop, 1916 - 2013: Hanover Resident Set Standard For Surgeon General's Role

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Washington — C. Everett Koop, the former surgeon general of the United States who started the government’s public discussion of AIDS during the Reagan administration, died yesterday at his home in Hanover. He was 96. A spokeswoman for the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth confirmed his death but did not disclose the cause. Koop was the most recognized surgeon …

Koop listens to Betsey Stefany, of Hanover, who greets him after his speech at Lebanon College on July 2011. (Valley News - Polina Yamshchikov)

A Nation’s Doctor Who Came Home to Hanover

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Hanover — When C. Everett Koop wrapped up his tenure as the surgeon general, he had his pick of academic institutions to settle into. But he chose Dartmouth College, where he once fell in love with the region's mountains, skiing and his first wife, Betty. Throughout his career as a pediatric surgeon, and later during his service as the U.S. …