What Israel can learn from the many lives of Dr. Koop

This blogpost aims to critique Israeli politics; the fact that it now reviews a very recently published book on a seemingly unrelated topic is only incidental to this purpose.  Although I did have a brief e-mail exchange with the book’s author, I have no personal agenda in promoting the book, and have neither requested, received, nor been offered any consideration to review the book (which I purchased using my own personal funds).

The book being reviewed is “Dr. Koop:  The Many Lives of the Surgeon General” by Nigel M. de S. Cameron, © 2025 University of Massachusetts Press, ISBN 978-1-62534-854-8.  The author, an accomplished academic, researcher, and writer on various topics, including medical ethics, found that nobody had written the comprehensive biography a man of Dr. C. Everett Koop’s accomplishments deserved, and sought to fill that void. Building upon his own personal interactions with Dr. Koop, Nigel M. de S. Cameron conducted diverse interviews and accessed thousands of documents worldwide, culminating in the recent tome.

The Surgeon General of the United States holds the equivalent military rank of Vice Admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.  As Surgeon General from 1982 to 1989, Dr. Koop’s accomplishments included furthering the push towards a smoke-free society; this was no mean feat in light of the historical role of tobacco in the American economy and culture (the architecture of the U.S. Capitol Building features tobacco motifs).  Having kicked his own tobacco habit, he fully appreciated the challenge of this.  He also spearheaded the government’s response to the AIDS epidemic.  The Commissioned Corps has forever been changed, and positively so, by Dr. Koop’s leadership.

Dr. Koop was Surgeon-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from 1948 to 1981, during which time his patients included me (and later, my brother).  The trepidations of my seven-year-old self at the prospects of hospitalization – having often visited my grandparents during their relatively frequent hospital stays and subsequent convalescences – quickly dissipated during the initial consultation with him.  Dr. Koop’s appointments in 1981 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, and, later that year, as Surgeon General, were roundly applauded by my family.

Cameron’s book sheds light upon “the sheer multiplicity of [Dr. Koop’s] endeavors, and the complexity of his convictions” through Koop’s chronological progression from medical student to hospital surgeon to public official and beyond.  Dr. Koop’s “many lives” include but are hardly limited to those of a family man, physician, Evangelical Christian, pro-life activist, and advocate for a healthy public.  Along the way, Dr. Koop did (more than) his share in opposing within the healthcare establishment antisemitism, racism, bias against people with disabilities.  Although he played the pervasive politics, he remained focused upon the objectives of promoting health, often teaming up with erstwhile adversaries to accomplish his objectives. Cameron expects and encourages others to further elucidate Dr. Koop and the lasting reverberations from his multifaceted life and career.

It was Dr. Koop who successfully fought tooth and nail for recognition of pediatric surgery as a distinct medical specialty; he understood that medically speaking, children cannot be treated as miniature adults (a reality my wife has often found necessary to highlight in the treatment of her own pediatric cancer patients).  In opposing abortion, he recognized that the Evangelical Christians had missed the boat by permitting the Catholic Church to define the issue in terms of tying it with the contraception issue when contraception can actually be a valuable tool in reducing the frequency of abortions.

Although the book’s index could be more inclusive and syndetic (perhaps a tall order, given its subject’s complexity), its ergonomics are otherwise excellent.  The story of C. Everett Koop is presented in chronological order.  Each part, beginning with “Family and Faith,” has a precursory overview, followed by one or more chapters.  The chapter or part of the book is clearly indicated by the page headers.  Cameron substantiates his assertions with endnotes at the end of the book, while the medical jargon and other terms that might be unrecognized by the uninitiated are explained in an occasional footnote at the bottom of the page; the reader thus can easily do a leisurely and informative perusal, conduct a scholarly study, or anything in between.

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So how is C. Everett Koop, M.D. relevant to Israeli politics?  Dr. Koop has demonstrated by example that a person who has strong religious principles and convictions, an enormous ego, a pugnacious tenacity, and a bent towards taking retribution can channel those attributes to achieve the betterment of society as a whole through consensus-building and leadership.  This lesson is sorely needed at all points along the Israeli political spectrum.

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