Dear Mr. Cunningham:

It surprises me that you were once a state legislator and now purport to be the Executive Director of a center for bio-ethical reform, yet have so little understanding of what you write. You would do better if you refrain from trying to be eloquent in your rhetoric and just ask a simple question about something you apparently don't understand.
My staff and my family have urged me not to answer your letter, feeling that the effort is really not worth it for someone so far off the truth in his assessment. I write only to say one thing. While Monday morning quarterbacks such as you stand on the sidelines and criticize others who are in the fray, let me say that I am responsible not to you but to my God for the way I act. Why do you judge what you think I do without knowing anything about it? It is not my desire to give you either assurances or comfort. But I would like to make clear that my association with the President and the First Lady and their health care reform package is to act as a moderator in a dialogue between the Administration and the medical profession.

You are mean spirited, Mr. Cunningham, and you should be ashamed of your scholarship.

(Dictated by Dr. Koop but signed in his absence.)

[The following letter was not included in the article]

Dear Mr. Koop,

Your response to my letter regarding your responsibility as physician liaison for the Clinton pro-abortion health care plan contains four separate assertions that I don’t "understand" your actions. You are correct.

You describe yourself as being "in the fray" concerning this debate but you go on to confirm that you have limited yourself to the role of mere "moderator" in a dialogue between the Administration and the medical profession. A "moderator" is a neutral arbiter who facilitates discussion while declining to take either side. A "moderator" is, by definition, above the "fray." To put the question "simply," why aren’t you "in the fray," and why not as an advocate for the unborn?

You might think it impertinent to ask such a question when you have declared yourself answerable only to God. While it may be true that in your official capacities, neither you nor Mrs. Clinton are as fully accountable to the American people as would be healthy, you are surely not suggesting that your leadership role in public policy should be exempt from public scrutiny. Neither can you imagine that your leadership role in the Body of Christ should excuse you from the commandment contained in I Peter 5:5, "Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility..."

In that latter connection you once co-authored a pro-life book for Christians entitled Whatever Happened to the Human Race? You concluded by asking:

Will future generations look back and remember that...at least there was one group who stood consistently, whatever the price, for the value of the individual, thus passing on some hope to future generations? Or are we Christians going to be merely swept along with the trends -- our own moral values becoming increasingly befuddled, our own apathy reflecting the apathy of the world around us, our own inactivity sharing the inertia of the masses around us, our own leadership becoming soft?

That was a fair question for you to ask the church. Is it unfair for the church to ask the same question of you?

Regarding scrutiny of your leadership in public policy, the October 2, 1993 issue of World magazine published an article entitled "Whatever Happened to C. Everett Koop?" The author asked:

Has C. Everett Koop become to evangelical conservatives what Barry Goldwater is to secular conservatives? Goldwater won his Strange New Respect Award this summer for supporting President Clinton’s gays-in-the-military gambit; Koop, the former surgeon general, won last week for endorsing Clinton’s health plan, which includes abortion on demand as part of its basic "benefits" package. Strange New Respect is that which official Washington bestows on conservatives who "grow" during (or after) their experiences on the Potomac.

A few days ago radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh made the same point concerning your association with this pro-abortion proposal. Should everyone who dares ask these awkward but important questions be "ashamed?" Or would the real "shame" be in ignoring the fact that your involvement in this process could influence the safety of countless innocent children?

Do you really believe that God wants you to help reform our health care system more deeply than He wants you to help stop the killing of our babies? Can you imagine a former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders submissively volunteering to shill for an abortionless health care package advanced by some future Republican administration? Is history going to record that President Clinton got a more forceful surgeon general than President Reagan?

If I were "mean-spirited," Dr. Koop, your picture would not still be hanging in my home. I placed it there thirteen years ago because I admired and respected the things for which you then stood. I am leaving it there to remind me to pray that you will become as strong a force for good as Dr. Elders has become for evil.