Lecture Pst. SG yrs Vol. 18/4 May 30, 1990 cover
Remarks
Association for the Care of Child Health
Washington, DC
May 30, 1990
By

C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD

 

I can’t remember turning down an opportunity to speak on behalf of children all during
the time I was Surgeon General and in the years following that when I was lecturing far
and wide over this country and abroad. I had spent my life in pediatric surgery as the
user recognizes, and I dealt with children continually who were less than perfect and
required attention paid to their special needs. The Association for Care of Child Health
plays a very significant role among pediatric societies in America because of its
multidisciplinary nature which encourages a team approach in solving the problems that
children face in a world that seems to grow ever more hostile. There was a large
Canadian contingent at this meeting and so it had an international flavor.

This keynote address gave me the latitude to wander over a broad range of pediatric
subjects based upon my early statement that children deserve to grow up receiving
quality health care, education, and necessary social support services. In addition, they
deserve to have a home with a family and live in a community that can meet their needs.
Such investment in children and families is the corner stone of public health and should
be the foundation of every nation’s political agenda. Because the approach of this society
was multidisciplinary it permitted me to cover the field in the same way