C. Everett Koop

Charles Everett Koop was an American pediatric surgeon who spent thirty-five years at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he established the country's first neonatal surgical intensive care unit and developed techniques for operating on conjoined twins and infants with severe congenital defects, before serving as the thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1982 to 1989. As Surgeon General he issued a series of reports on the health consequences of smoking, stating publicly that nicotine was more addictive than heroin, and he mailed AIDS prevention information to every household in the country in 1988 while advocating for comprehensive AIDS education over the objections of parts of his own political coalition. He also championed protections for newborns with disabilities following the Baby Doe case, and he is remembered as the surgeon general who made the office itself a visible, independent voice on public health.